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Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their chances of ending up in the highest eight places of the European competition group stage, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Of course, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Issue: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they played against Barca, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he droned. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you look at the several alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they welcome the unexpected contenders Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then go to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Everton team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to start on golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking 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” – one reader.

“I note that one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.