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Although Chelsea avoided a total demolition of their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the European competition group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Of course, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped competition, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. Since apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, the team have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Serie A.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see the coach change his lineup constantly, the manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his starting lineup 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 Tottenham, they play against Barca, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to win their remaining two matches. First up, they welcome the unexpected contenders Pafos, then travel back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then progress to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me turning pro in golf. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he forced me to start on golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“So, 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 marching from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground 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 one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.