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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Of course, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped tournament, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Problem: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Italy. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of a European giant, and then a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Serie A.

While critics have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea 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 Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we try to play the playoff and then go to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he forced me to take up 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 scoring goals in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“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 pub that the supporters planned to be at 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 a reader 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 the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.