Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their chances of ending up in the top eight of the European competition opening phase, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Naturally, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped tournament, securing a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.
The Core Concern: A Predictable Lack of Consistency
Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Serie A.
While critics have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team constantly, the manager maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is largely set in stone.
“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were 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 different.”
The Path Forward
To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to win their remaining two matches. First up, they welcome this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, then travel back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.
“We need to win both, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then go to the following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.
Other Notes
Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he forced me to start on golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the top flight.
Readers' Letters
“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the ground that they were always 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 the previous letter o’ the day, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.
