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While The London club avoided a total demolition of their chances of finishing in the highest eight places of the European competition group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of strolling directly into the round of 16. 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 Issue: A Monotonous Inconsistency

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 defeat in Bergamo. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that seems to see the coach change his lineup constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they played against Barca, they play against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had 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 compared to Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to be victorious in their final two group games. In the first, they welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. 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

“Well, no wonder Wolves 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 public house that the supporters intended to visit 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” – a correspondent.

“I see that one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.