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While Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their hopes of finishing in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of strolling directly into the round of 16. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Problem: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a average team from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the Chelsea head coach insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the several alterations that we did compared to previous game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the extra round and then go to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. 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 explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than tearing it up 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 effective pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground that they were inevitably 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 a reader not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.