Chelsea fans showed their support for manager Thomas Tuchel during these uncertain days for the club by unfurling an impressive new banner proclaiming him to be Deutscher Maestro.

The vast flag was seen for the first time before Chelsea’s 1-1 Thursday night draw with Leicester City… a result which guarantees the Blues Champions League football next season, whatever the outcome of the matches on the final day of this campaign on Sunday afternoon. Well, unless Chelsea lose at home to relegated Watford, and Tottenham win 18-0 at Norwich.

In a surprisingly entertaining end-to-end clash, the Foxes took the lead after six minutes as keeper Kasper Schmeichel sent a long clearance upfield, James Maddison latched on to it and rifled the ball past Edouard Mendy – to Tuchel’s fury on the touchline.

It was a sloppy moment in an otherwise solid defensive display by the Blues, and they deserved the equaliser on 35 minutes when Marcos Alonso, who could have done better to deny Maddison a scoring chance, atoned by volleying a glorious goal past Schmeichel after Reece James had done all the hard work, providing the perfect cross.

Tuchel praised N’Golo Kante’s grit and determination to overcome injury to play a key part in midfield, shadowed by his Leicester lookalike and near-clone Nampalys Mendy.

“Kante is the guy who makes the difference,” he said. “He our key, key, key player; but key, key, key players need to be on the pitch. He plays only 40% of the games. So it’s maybe a miracle that we arrived in third place.

“Because he is our Mo Salah, he is our [Virgil] Van Dijk, he is our [Kevin] De Bruyne, he is simply that player. He is our Neymar, he is our Kylian Mbappe!”

Kante lasted until the 72nd minute, when he was replaced by Ruben Loftus-Cheek.