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While The London club didn't entirely destroy their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of strolling directly into the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Problem: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Serie A.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had 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 different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, they 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 Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the extra round and then go to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up 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 poor situation. As any regular reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground that they were always 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 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 the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.