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While The Blues didn’t completely torpedo their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the European competition group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Problem: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, and then a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a average team from Serie A.

Although critics have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach change his lineup constantly, the manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core 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 eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they played against Barca, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were most of the regulars 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 remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, then travel back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then progress to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the surprising position of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish 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” – Erling Haaland revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective 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 one correspondent not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.