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Although The Blues avoided a total demolition of their chances of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Problem: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Italy. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

Although critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that appears to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, then travel back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then progress to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream 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 played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium that they were always going to. Just arriving 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 Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a mention 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 regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.