🔗 Share this article

Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their chances of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup group stage, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of strolling directly into the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Italy. After seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that appears to see the coach change his lineup constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition 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 Tottenham, they played against Barca, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the five changes that we did from the previous game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping 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 Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then progress to the next round,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish 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 played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective 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 one correspondent not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more surrendered 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?” – a different supporter.