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Although Chelsea avoided a total demolition of their prospects of ending up in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of strolling directly into the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, securing a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Issue: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a dull draw 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 seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then go to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. 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 explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground 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” – one reader.

“I see that a reader not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.