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Although Chelsea avoided a total demolition of their hopes of finishing in the top eight of the continental tournament opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Of course, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the recently revamped 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 sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that appears to see the coach change his lineup incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. First up, they welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a match against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me turning pro in golf. That was his biggest dream. 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” – a star striker explained 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 sad state. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the ground 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 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 Sheffield teams again dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.