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While The Blues avoided a total demolition of their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the European competition group stage, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Naturally, the good news is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Problem: A Predictable Inconsistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Bergamo. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

While critics have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping 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 a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we will face the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he forced me to take up golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground that they were inevitably 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 a reader not only got the previous featured letter, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.