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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their chances of ending up in the top eight of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

Although critics have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that appears to see the coach rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. 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 final two group games. First up, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, then travel back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we try to play the playoff and then progress to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish 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

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground 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 the previous featured letter, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.