Chelsea churning out results while in football limbo

This performance wouldn’t feature in an accompanying brochure, but Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Lille on Wednesday gave potential new owners a timely reminder of the winning machine they are lining up to buy.

The Blues weren’t particularly impressive at Stade Pierre Mauroy and appeared set for a difficult evening when Burak Yilmaz converted a 38th-minute penalty, but Christian Pulisic’s clinical finish just before the break and a second-half effort from Cesar Azpilicueta eased them into the Champions League quarterfinals.

The draw takes place in Nyon on Friday, hours before the deadline set by New York-based merchant bank Raine Group for interested parties to table their formal offers to buy the world and European champions, valued by owner Roman Abramovich at £3 billion.

They are still buying a team competing in Europe courtesy of the sort of display that underlines their pedigree at this level: Finding a way to achieve their aim despite an underwhelming 90 minutes because they still mustered enough quality in the final third to dispatch their industrious but limited hosts.

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Preparations have not been easy. Chelsea’s last visit to this ground in October 2019 — also a 2-1 win but then in the group stage under Thomas Tuchel’s predecessor Frank Lampard — was overshadowed by a row emanating from pictures showing midfielder Ross Barkley eating a kebab and chips and arguing with a taxi driver in Liverpool a few days earlier.

Catering and travel are still issues on the agenda but with much greater urgency these days, given the restrictions imposed upon them as part of the licence granted by the UK government to continue operating in the wake of Abramovich being sanctioned for alleged links to Russia president Vladimir Putin.

The club’s travel plans for Lille were finalised prior to last Thursday’s government intervention but Tuchel…