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While The London club didn't entirely destroy their chances of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Issue: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

Although critics have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach change his lineup like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the manager maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is largely set in stone.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to be victorious in their final two group games. In the first, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, 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 extra round and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the dizzy heights 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 turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground that they were always going to. Just showing up 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 featured letter, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.