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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their chances of finishing in the highest eight places 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 silver lining is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Concern: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Italy. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that featured against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the extra round and then go to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose current form has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish was me turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he forced me to take up golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the stadium that they were always 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 a reader not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.