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Although The Blues didn't entirely destroy their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of strolling directly into the round of 16. Naturally, the good news is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, securing a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Italy. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, the team have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate 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 rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for big matches 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 Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of escaping the additional knockout round, they will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then go to the next round,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, 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 start on golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground 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” – one reader.

“I see that a reader not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the regularity of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.