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Although Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their chances of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament opening phase, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining 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 Core Concern: A Predictable Inconsistency

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. Since apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see the coach rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, first XI, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. First up, they welcome this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the playoff and then progress to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me turning pro in golf. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he forced me to take up 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 teeing off rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

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

“I see that one correspondent not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your letters section is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.