🔗 Share this article

While Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their chances of ending up in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of strolling directly into the round of 16. Of course, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, securing a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Bergamo. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“In my view in that game, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barca, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the previous game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they welcome the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me turning pro in golf. 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” – a star striker explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. 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 stadium 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 note that a reader not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.