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Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the European competition group stage, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of strolling directly into the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Problem: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Bergamo. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, starting team, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did compared to previous game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to win their final two group games. First up, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then progress to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “You know, 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 pushed me to start on golf. So I played golf 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 scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, 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 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 see that a reader not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams 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 achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.