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While The Blues didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the Bigger Cup group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Problem: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, first XI, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that play against Spurs, they played against Barca, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the several alterations that we did compared to previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they host the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “You know, 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 played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker 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 sad state. As any regular reader of this email 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 a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the regularity of appearances in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.