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While Chelsea avoided a total demolition of 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 waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Problem: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, and then a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. First up, 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 go to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position 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 biggest dream. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, 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 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 note that one correspondent not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.