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Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their prospects of finishing in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Of course, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat 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 defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup incessantly, the manager maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, first XI, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, then travel back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the extra round and then progress 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 domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream 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 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 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 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” – one reader.

“I see that one correspondent not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.