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Although The Blues didn't entirely destroy their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament opening phase, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, securing a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Problem: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Italy. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach change his lineup incessantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you look at the several alterations that we did from the previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we will face the extra round and then go to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, 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 practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. 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 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 the previous letter o’ the day, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.