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Although The London club didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Of course, the silver lining is that in the brief 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 Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon following their defeat in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they played against Barca, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the several alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping the additional knockout round, they will have to win their final two group games. First up, they welcome the unexpected contenders Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we try to play the playoff and then go to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a match against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “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 take up 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 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 effective pre-match protests involve marching from a public house 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 featured letter, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.