🔗 Share this article

While Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their hopes of finishing in the top eight of the European competition opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Problem: A Predictable Inconsistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Italy. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then 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 been beaten by a average team from Serie A.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his first eleven for big matches is largely set in stone.

“In my view in that game, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Tottenham, they played against Barca, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you look at the several alterations that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. First up, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the extra round and then progress to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the domestic 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 biggest dream. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up 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 on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolves 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 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” – one reader.

“I note that one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.