Chelsea vs Noah live: Score and latest updates from Conference ...

When Chelsea won the Club World Cup in 2022, fans could sing “we’ve won it all” before Roma lifted the first-ever Conference League trophy a few months later. Back then, even the most pessimistic Blues fans would not have expected their club to be hosting the likes of Noah a couple of years later.

Cole Palmer should be spending European nights in the Champions League, not popping into the press room for some pre-match chicken because he is deemed too good to be in Chelsea’s Conference League squad for the league phase.

Chelsea’s star player actually made two visits to the buffet, once for the main course and bringing Levi Colwill, also not in Thursday night’s squad, back with him for the lemon sponge dessert. 

Palmer not limping

There was no sign of a limp as Palmer made his dinner trips, which may suggest he will be fit to face Arsenal on Sunday after receiving a painful blow to the knee against Manchester United that required a scan.

While this may have been a no-contest on an epic level, there was some value to it for Chelsea other than offering reporters such as this one the opportunity to make awful Noah jokes thanks to the Armenian club being named after the biblical tale.

Teenage striker Marc Guiu was obviously delighted to break his duck for the club, having missed a couple of sitters in previous Conference League appearances.