🔗 Share this article

While The London club avoided a total demolition of their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the European competition group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of strolling directly into the round of 16. 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 Core Problem: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. Since 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 the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

Although pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that seems to see the coach change his lineup constantly, the Chelsea head coach insists 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, first XI, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they play against Barca, they played against Wolves, 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 five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the additional knockout round, they will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. In the first, they host this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then go to the following stage,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me turning pro in golf. 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” – a star striker explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters intended to visit 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 Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your letters section is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.