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Although Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their chances of ending up in the top eight of the continental tournament opening phase, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Concern: A Predictable Inconsistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is largely set in stone.

“In my view tonight, first XI, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the previous game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome this season’s surprise package Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we will face the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic 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” – Erling Haaland explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters intended to visit 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 a reader not only got the previous featured letter, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.