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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their chances of ending up in the top eight of the European competition group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Of course, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Issue: A Predictable Inconsistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their credentials with an impressive beat-down 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 snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see the coach change his lineup constantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“In my view tonight, first XI, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he stated. “We had 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 previous game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. First up, they welcome 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 will face the playoff and then go to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose next appointment is a match against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position 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 turning pro in golf. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he forced me to start on 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 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 longtime reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium 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 one correspondent not only got the previous 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 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 achieving on the field?” – another fan.