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While Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the European competition opening phase, 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 isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Problem: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

Although critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Spurs, they played against Barca, they play against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they welcome this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we try to play the playoff and then progress to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish 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 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.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking 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 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 once more surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the regularity of representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.