So football’s answer to the old philosophical question, ‘When a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?’ is: no, but you still get to pocket the three points.

This evening brings the first-ever competitive match for Chelsea behind closed doors at Stamford Bridge. Having snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on Sunday for only the second time this campaign, the Blues can move one point behind third-placed Leicester with victory over reigning champions Manchester City tonight. (When we met the Foxes in February, by the way, they were eight clear.)

This will be only the second of the 150 league meetings between the Blues and the Citizens to take place on a Thursday. The previous one was a 2-1 home win for the Londoners on Boxing Day 1935. Chelsea have won 60 of the previous 149 meeting.

Bridge too far

Our hearts will be at Stamford Bridge this evening but our bodies and voices, sadly, will not. No boys and girls will walk out with the teams, and our favourite lions Stamford and Bridget will also be absent.

Supporters are reminded that despite the future softening of the lockdown, the stadium will be shut to everyone except essential staff, media, players, coaches and officials. Please don’t congregating in areas around the ground.

Villa thriller

Chelsea’s brilliant comeback against Aston Villa was our first top-flight victory on the road since 29 December at Arsenal, and before the current round of fixtures began, the Blues have scored more goals over the past six league matches (12) than any rival, including leaders Liverpool (10) and tonight’s visitors (11).

There were plenty of impressive displays all over the field at Villa Park, with injury-free N’Golo Kante back to his impish best in central midfield. The two decisive strikes, though, came in a three-minute spell five minutes after key substitutions, including equalising goalscorer Christian Pulisic. The late-arriving Pennsylvania express has now accounted for 40 per cent of the team’s top-flight goals from inside the six-yard box.

Ton up for Frank

Frank Lampard completed a century of matches as a coach in the win at Villa. The 100 games break down as 22 wins (46 including Derby County), nine draws (26), and 12 defeats (28).

His next three will arrive especially quickly. Thanks to the compressed schedule Chelsea face a spree of games with just two days’ recovery in between.

Citizens dispossessed

Since the restart Pep Guardiola has started 19 different players in two matches, producing two wins at the Etihad, and eight goals without reply. However, the Mancunians have lost two of their past three Premier League matches on the road (at Tottenham and Manchester United), and how the loss of Sergio Aguero affects his plans remains to be seen. The Mancunians’ leading goalscorer has had surgery on his knee. Phil Foden is expected to shake off a knock sustained at Burnley, however.

Lampard will take heart from much of the performance, if not the result (a 1-2 loss), in the reverse fixture at Manchester. He wanted his team to be ‘brave on and off the ball’ and they were. The Blues pounced ruthlessly on City’s attacking possession, while regularly exposing the defensive vulnerabilities behind their midfield line in a vivid first half.

Chelsea’s 53 per cent share of ball possession was the highest any side had achieved during Guardiola’s matches in charge, but the need to be more clinical in the box was obvious. The Londoners had already squandered two gilt-edged chances before N’Golo Kante’s surging run delivered the opener, but a double-deflection and fine piece of skill handed the hosts all three points.

‘At this level, the finer details in both boxes are what decide these ones,’ Chelsea’s head coach observed. That match came just three months into the season for Lampard’s young side. Even earlier in the campaign, the Blues similarly went toe-to-toe with Liverpool but again narrowly lost 1-2 – Kante again the goalscorer.

When we encountered the Reds again at the Bridge in the FA Cup in March it finished 2-0 to the Londoners. Let us hope for further evidence of improvement this evening.

Whether or not he was sincere in suggesting he views Newcastle in the FA Cup as City’s more important game, for symmetry’s sake, it would help if Guardiola lost his 15th game against the Blues, making it five wins, five draws, and five defeats in his career.

Hat-trick heroes head-to-head

Chelsea and Manchester City are the only sides to have hit hat-tricks in two or more Premier League matches this season. Timed at 21 minutes and 35 respectively, Tammy Abraham (at Wolves) and Christian Pulisic (Burnley) were the quickest to complete their trebles, both away from home. Until Anthony Martial did so last night, the most recent player to hit three was Aguero for the Citizens.

The title decider?

Liverpool’s win at Crystal Palace last night means Chelsea could hand the Reds their first league title in 30 years tonight. A win for Frank Lampard’s men against the club he graced late in his career would restrict City to a maximum points haul for the season of 84, and a draw 85, both short of the Merseysiders’ 86.

In between being crowned champions ourselves in 2015 and 2017, the Blues delivered the coup de grace that killed off Tottenham’s challenge in 2016. Wild scenes of triumphant Leicester players celebrating Eden Hazard’s famous equaliser appeared all over social media, and the same might apply this evening. It might be the only time fans of the Blues and the Reds ever cheer the same goal.

The pursuit of Europe

In a wider context, the race for European places is still very much alive, with plenty of points on offer before the end of the season, with Manchester City’s possible exclusion providing further intrigue.

Having lodged their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a two-year ban from UEFA competitions and £25m fine for overstating sponsorship revenue between 2012 and 2016, City will learn their fate next month.

Screening games simultaneously

One of the great taboos of English broadcasting was broken last night as the BBC, Sky Sports and BT Sport showed four matches with the same kick-off time. Ever since radio coverage arrived in the 1930s, football authorities have legislated to prohibit broadcasters ‘drawing the crowds away’ from stadiums elsewhere, and even today (before the pandemic) televised games were always scheduled to avoid coinciding with other top-flight fixtures.

When the figures are published it will be especially interesting to see which freeview match captured the audience’s imagination. Was it Sky’s tussle between the United clubs, Manchester and Sheffield, or Norwich versus Everton over on BBC One?

Premier League fixtures and results

WednesdayMan Utd 3-0 Sheffield UtdNewcastle 1-1 Aston VillaNorwich 0-1 EvertonWolves 1-0 BournemouthLiverpool 4-0 Crystal Palace

ThursdayBurnley v Watford 6pm (Sky Sports)Southampton v Arsenal 6pm (Sky Sports)Chelsea v Man City 8.15pm (BT Sport)

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