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Although Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their prospects of ending up in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of waltzing straight 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 place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Issue: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Italy. After seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

Although critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team constantly, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations 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 win their remaining two matches. First up, they welcome this season’s surprise package Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the playoff and then progress to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a match against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, 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 take up 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 top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the stadium 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” – a correspondent.

“I note that a reader not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the regularity of appearances in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.