🔗 Share this article

While The Blues avoided a total demolition of their chances of ending up in the top eight of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Of course, the good news is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Italy. After seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then 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 been beaten by a average team from Italy's top flight.

Although critics have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup constantly, the manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is largely set in stone.

“In my view tonight, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they played against Wolves, 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 compared to previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. First up, they welcome this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then go to the next round,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, 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 practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed 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

“Well, 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 planned to be at anyway, to the ground 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” – one reader.

“I note that one correspondent not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of representation in your mailbag is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.