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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their prospects of ending up in the top eight of the continental tournament opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Problem: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

While critics have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. 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 win their remaining two matches. First up, they welcome this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we try to play the playoff and then go to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish 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, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium that they were always going to. Just arriving 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – one reader.

“I see that a reader not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.