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While The London club avoided a total demolition of their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup group stage, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Of course, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Concern: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Italy. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, Chelsea have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Italy's top flight.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach change his lineup incessantly, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, 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 compared to previous game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, then travel back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we try to play the extra round and then progress to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he pushed 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.

Fan Correspondence

“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 stadium that they were inevitably going to. Just showing up 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – a correspondent.

“I note that one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a mention 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 Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.