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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the continental tournament opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Of course, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, securing a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Issue: A Predictable Inconsistency

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 since their loss in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team constantly, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” 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 from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the additional knockout round, they will have to win their final two group games. First up, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the playoff and then go to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up 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 on the golf course rather than tearing it up 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 walking from a pub that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the stadium 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 note that one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.