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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Concern: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, Chelsea have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

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

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose next appointment is a match against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “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” – Erling Haaland revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a pub 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 one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.