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While The London club didn't entirely destroy their chances of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament opening phase, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Italy's top flight.

Although critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup incessantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they play against Wolves, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the extra round and then go to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency 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 turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium 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 one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield 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.