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Although Chelsea avoided a total demolition of their chances of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Concern: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Italy. After seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team 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 like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to be victorious in their final two group games. In the first, they welcome 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 following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he forced me to take up golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime 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 showing up 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 the previous letter o’ the day, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.