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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 group stage, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Issue: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon following their defeat in Bergamo. Since apparently rubber-stamping 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 dull draw at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Serie A.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Spurs, they play against Barca, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did compared to previous game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the playoff and then progress to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny 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 scoring goals in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground that they were always 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 a reader not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, 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 Sheffield be proving that the frequency of representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.