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While Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their chances of ending up in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup 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, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Problem: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Spurs, they played against Barca, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we try to play the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish was me turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland 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

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking 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” – a correspondent.

“I note that a reader not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a mention 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 mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.