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Although The London club didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the European competition opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped tournament, achieving a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Italy. After seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea 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 team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“I think in that game, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

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

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the extra round and then progress to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “It's interesting, 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 pushed me to start on golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any regular reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the stadium that they were always going to. Just showing up 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 Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.