🔗 Share this article

While The London club didn't entirely destroy their prospects of finishing in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Of course, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Problem: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that seems to see the coach 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 big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think in that game, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Spurs, they played 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

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. First up, they host this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the playoff and then progress to the next round,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “You know, 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 played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column 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 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 name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.