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Although The Blues didn’t completely torpedo their chances of ending up in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped tournament, achieving a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Issue: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barca, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they host this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, then travel back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then go to the next round,” remarked Maresca, whose next appointment is a match against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the Premier 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 forced me to take up golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a pub 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 see that one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.