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Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their prospects of finishing in the top eight of the European competition group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Of course, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their loss in Italy. After seemingly confirming their credentials with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, Chelsea have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that seems to see the coach change his lineup incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barca, they play against Wolves, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then go to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

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 pushed me to start on golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters intended to visit 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 a reader not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.