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While Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their chances of finishing in the highest eight places of the continental tournament opening phase, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth 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 appears to see the coach rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that play against Spurs, they play against Barca, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to be victorious in their final two group games. In the first, they welcome this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then go to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to start on golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers 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 public house 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” – a correspondent.

“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 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?” – a different supporter.