🔗 Share this article

While The London club didn’t completely torpedo their chances of ending up in the top eight of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Issue: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their loss in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Serie A.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that appears to see the coach change his lineup constantly, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barca, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the several alterations that we did from the previous 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 welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we try to play the extra round and then go to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “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 forced me to start on golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any regular reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a public house 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” – a correspondent.

“I note that a reader not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a name check 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 representation in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.