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While Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of strolling directly into the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Problem: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

Although critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team constantly, the manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Tottenham, they played against Barca, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did from the previous game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he forced me to start on golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground that they were always going to. Just showing up 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – a correspondent.

“I note that one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the regularity of representation in your mailbag is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.