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While The Blues didn't entirely destroy their prospects of ending up in the top eight of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Of course, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped tournament, securing a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Issue: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, 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. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, the team have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that seems to see the coach change his lineup incessantly, the manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you look at the several alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he pushed me to start on golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the ground that they were inevitably 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 letter o’ the day, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your letters section is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.