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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their hopes of finishing in the highest eight places of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Of course, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Problem: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, and then a feisty stalemate 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 average team from Italy's top flight.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“In my view in that game, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they played against Barcelona, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the five changes that we did from the previous game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then go to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half 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 pushed 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 teeing off rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolves 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 pub 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” – one reader.

“I note that a reader not only got the previous featured letter, 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 the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.