🔗 Share this article

Although The Blues didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the European competition group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped tournament, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Problem: A Predictable Inconsistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Italy's top flight.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Tottenham, they played against Barca, they play against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, before heading back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then go to the next round,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “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 start on 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 on the golf course rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the stadium that they were inevitably going to. Just showing up 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – a correspondent.

“I note that a reader not only got the previous letter o’ the day, 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 representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.