🔗 Share this article

Although The London club didn't entirely destroy their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, securing a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Problem: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Italy. After seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a average team from Serie A.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that seems to see the coach change his lineup incessantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think in that game, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you look at the several alterations that we did from the previous game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they welcome the unexpected contenders Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the playoff and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he forced 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 tearing it up in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters intended to visit 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” – a correspondent.

“I see that a reader not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.