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Although The London club didn’t completely torpedo their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the continental tournament group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of strolling directly into the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Problem: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their defeat in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now lost against a mid-table side from Serie A.

While critics have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team incessantly, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did compared to previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, if not, we will face the extra round and then progress to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny 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 played golf 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 Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters intended to visit 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 note that one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.