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Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their prospects of ending up in the top eight of the European competition opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Serie A.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that appears to see the coach change his lineup incessantly, the manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his starting lineup 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 play against Tottenham, they played against Barca, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you look at the five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to win their remaining two matches. First up, they welcome this season’s surprise package Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we try to play the playoff and then go to the following stage,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a match against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me turning pro in golf. That was his biggest dream. 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 explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium 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” – a correspondent.

“I note that a reader not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.