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While The London club didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the European competition group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the recently revamped tournament, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Problem: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Italy. Since apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that appears to see the coach rotate his team incessantly, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they played against Barca, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had 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 Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to win their final two group games. First up, they host the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me turning pro in golf. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he pushed me to start on golf. So I practiced 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 scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium that they were inevitably going to. Just arriving 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 Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.