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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their chances of finishing in the top eight of the European competition opening phase, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Concern: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Italy. After seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

Although critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that appears to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the manager maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barca, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he stated. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the several alterations 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 be victorious in their remaining two matches. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then go to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. 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, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any regular reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the ground that they were inevitably going to. Just arriving 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – a correspondent.

“I see that a reader not only got the previous featured letter, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.