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Although The London club didn’t completely torpedo their prospects of finishing in the top eight of the European competition opening phase, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped competition, securing a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Concern: A Predictable Inconsistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Italy. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

Although critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team incessantly, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. First up, they welcome 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 try to play the extra round and then go to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic 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” – Erling Haaland revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any regular 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 inevitably going to. Just arriving 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – one reader.

“I see that a reader not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.