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While The London club didn’t completely torpedo their chances of finishing in the top eight of the Bigger Cup group stage, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of strolling directly into the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Italy. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

While critics have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup 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 big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, first XI, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. 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 avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then go to the following stage,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of seventh in the Premier 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 forced me to take up golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off 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 marching from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground 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 one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.