Palmer – late back to training after his duties at the Euros – duly centred a free kick in the dying seconds of an entertaining match to allow fellow sub Lesley Ugochukwu to equalise, cancelling out Marcus Thuram’s fiery volley into the Chelsea net in the first half.

Maresca’s team gets full marks for effort after the draw with the Italian champions ahead of this weekend’s start to the season, although at times ‘friendly’ seemed the wrong description. Full-blooded tackles led to ref Sam Barrott showing four yellow cards, with the Blues’ Marc Cucurella and Levi Colwill having their names taken.

It is astonishing how everything now pivots around Chelsea’ young playmaker, and it will be fascinating to see how Palmer, who turned 22 in May, performs against his old club, FA Community Shield winners City, on Sunday when the Premier League gets underway again.

Maresca gave a start to new Spanish forward Marc Guiu (apparently it’s pronounced Ghee-oo) – a chunkier alternative to Nico Jackson – against Inter, and he showed grit and determination in front of goal, nearly dispossessing the Italians’ keeper Yann Sommer at one point.

Jackson came on for Guiu in the second half, while one of Maresca’s old Leicester City favourites, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, started the game. At half-time new signing Pedro Neto, who joins from Wolves, was paraded, leading Maresca to confess afterwards: “I still don’t know my team yet!”