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While The Blues avoided a total demolition of their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of strolling directly into the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped tournament, achieving a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Problem: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

Although critics 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 insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they played against Barcelona, they play against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. First up, they host 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 will face the playoff and then go to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled them to the surprising position of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. 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 revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters intended to visit 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 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 Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.