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While Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Of course, the good news is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Issue: A Predictable Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Italy. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach change his lineup constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think in that game, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then progress to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. 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 revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the stadium that they were always going to. Just arriving 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – one reader.

“I see that a reader not only got the previous featured letter, but also a mention 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 representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.