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Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Issue: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their loss in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, followed by a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at the south coast club 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 appears to see the coach rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the Chelsea head coach insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is largely set in stone.

“In my view in that game, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did compared to previous game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. In the first, 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,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. 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, had his dad got his way, he could have been on the golf course rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

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 marching from a public house that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the ground 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 see that one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.