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Although Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Issue: A Predictable Inconsistency

Unfortunately 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 defeat in Italy. Since apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth 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 change his lineup like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that featured against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, Arsenal,” 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 compared to previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to win their final two group games. First up, they host this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading 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 progress to the next round,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, 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, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals 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 effective pre-match protests involve marching 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 note that one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.