For football fans as well as football players, few things trump winning against the odds. Certainly, the three points against Leicester at the weekend felt as pleasurable as just about any others in the season because we managed it with 10 men for the majority of the match.

It is hard enough when you have a lead and then have to hang on with a man short, but this was a serious triumph because it was still 0-0 when Conor Gallagher left the field.

Teams do practise with 10, so it will not be a shock when it happens. The most common tactic over the years was to simply take off one forward and leave everything else pretty much the same. A classic 4-3-3 isn’t suddenly that much easier to break down than a 4-3-2, or indeed a 4-4-1. One less player, but still a set defence with a wall in front of it. For many decades football folk have done exactly the same thing, with the same mantra, ‘Get tight together, get deep and be hard to beat’.

It was a bit of a masterclass in the art from Chelsea, and Thomas Tuchel sat up there in the stands still takes plenty of credit. It was especially important to know when to revert to a back-three, with a line that was able to hold out enough to the end, with maybe just a little bit of luck in amongst a lot of good defending and piles of hard graft.

The fans enjoyed the win, but they played their part as well, urging the team on brilliantly right to the final seconds. Those wins in extremis are a particular shared joy.

Busy times

We are now all officially back on the rollercoaster again, with three games a week for the foreseeable future, along with international dates, which doesn’t afford a huge amount of rest for most of our important players.

Ten men at the weekend was demanding enough, but do not expect things to ease up. Tonight’s trip to St Mary’s will not be any easier than Saturday. It is not just because Southampton can cause any side trouble, just ask Manchester United, but because away games are rarely straightforward in the Premier League. Our trips up to Goodison Park and then to Elland Road have already shown that nothing can be taken for granted.

Liverpool have managed one point from six on the road so far, and even the mighty Man City slipped up at Newcastle, very nearly dropping all three points after falling a couple of goals behind. Then again, Liverpool with that 9-0 victory on Saturday showed it’s dangerous to travel to Anfield with anything but the right attitude and organisation. It underlines the peril, if you are off it at all, not only can you get beat but you can also get absolutely hammered. Do not be surprised if Man City do that to some outfit this season.

Just what he needed

For Chelsea, with the squad taking shape, that shouldn’t be a concern. Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly have had their moments in the sun already, but Raheem Sterling has been burning bright all by himself ever since he donned his new blue number 17 shirt.

All his start to his Chelsea career needed was a goal and his brace at the weekend will almost certainly be the first of many. His attitude on the field has been first class and while his ability was never in question, maybe the only concern would have been can he step up and be one of, if not the, main man up front? Would he take that responsibility on his shoulders, or would it weigh him down?

He certainly hasn’t looked burdened to me. He wants the ball all the time, he is willing to take risks and he has quickly learned the important things about Chelsea’s play, the most obvious being that if Reece James gets the ball on the right then expect it to be whipped in between the keeper and the defenders with pace and quality. He instinctively knows that if he attacks that space every time, he will get plenty of goals.

I had a look a little while back at Raheem’s goals for Man City, and there was a stunning amount of what some people would call ‘tap-ins’. They may well have been from one to eight yards out, but there is an art to being in the right place at the right time, of being alert enough, intelligent enough and willing enough to hurt yourself to get there, and then it helps to be calm when you are in position and the ball is zipping across the goal.

It is a harsh life as a centre-forward. If you just miss that cross ball by centimetres, you might as well have missed it by 10 yards. That is how they are and indeed must be gauged; you either score or you don’t.

A brilliant world-class striker once said to me, when I asked what his secret was, ‘It’s simple, go where the defenders aren’t.’ Those simple seven words led me to scoring 19 goals that season! So have a look at where Raheem was in the build-up to the second goal against Leicester or if we are honest, the huge amount of space Harry Kane found on Sunday for his nod-in at the back post for Spurs against Nottingham Forest.

Always alert, always working hard and always ready to take responsibility, that is the key. It is important for every position on a football field, but at striker it is all too easy to gauge the level of success simply by the number of goals and assists. So they have to be ultra-aware of every situation.

Raheem has impressed in every area and with any luck, he will get a few chances to carry this on tonight.

New flexibility

One of the most noticeable things about the team this season is how often, even during the matches themselves, Thomas Tuchel has radically changed systems. There was a period when we seemed utterly wedded to a back three, but that is no longer the case. The system and the personnel look as though they are being asked to be much more flexible for this campaign.

Away from home this adaptability will be even more important and as such, it is vital to have the manager in the thick of it. It will be a lift to the fans and the players to turn around tonight and see TT prowling in the technical area. It is a lift we might just need.