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While The London club didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of finishing in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Of course, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped tournament, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Italy. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup constantly, the manager maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they played against Barca, they play against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “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 compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, then travel back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the extra round and then progress to the next round,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to start on golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground 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” – a correspondent.

“I note that one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.