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While The London club didn't entirely destroy their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the Bigger Cup group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped competition, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Serie A.

Although pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup 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 big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “There were most of the regulars 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 escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, then travel back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the playoff and then go to the next round,” remarked Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream 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 played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any longtime 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 arriving 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 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 the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.