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Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of finishing in the highest eight places of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped competition, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

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 manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they played against Barca, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

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

“We need to win both, if not, we will face the playoff and then progress to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me turning pro in golf. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he pushed me to start on 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 top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters intended to visit 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” – a correspondent.

“I note that one correspondent not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your letters section is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.