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While The Blues didn’t completely torpedo their prospects of ending up in the highest eight places of the European competition group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Concern: A Predictable Inconsistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Bergamo. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, first XI, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that featured against Tottenham, they played against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the several alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. First up, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh 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 ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to start on golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium 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” – one reader.

“I see that one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.