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Although The Blues avoided a total demolition of their hopes 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 round of 16. Naturally, the good news 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 Core Problem: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, the team have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Serie A.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the several alterations that we did from the previous game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then progress to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “You know, 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 forced me to start on golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this email 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” – one reader.

“I see that one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again dropped 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 accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.