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While The Blues didn't entirely destroy their chances of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Concern: A Predictable 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 defeat in Bergamo. Since apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that appears to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he droned. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. In the first, they host this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled 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 becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. 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, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“Well, 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 walking from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground that they were inevitably 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 a reader not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.