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Although The Blues didn’t completely torpedo their chances of ending up in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike 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 competition, securing a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Concern: A Predictable Inconsistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

Although pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see the coach rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, starting team, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you look at the five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then go to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “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 scoring goals in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters intended to visit 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” – one reader.

“I note that one correspondent not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a name check 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 proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.