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While The London club didn't entirely destroy their chances of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they performed 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 new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Concern: A Predictable Inconsistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Italy. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea 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 eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the manager maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“In my view tonight, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Spurs, they played against Barca, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. First up, they host this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the playoff and then go to the next round,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “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 pushed me to take up golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any regular reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium 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 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 frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.