Maresca's Unceasing Lineup Shuffling Puts Chelsea Off Balance.

While Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the European competition group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Of course, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the recently revamped tournament, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon since their loss in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down 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 the south coast club and have now lost against a mid-table side from Serie A.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach change his lineup incessantly, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. 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 welcome this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, then travel back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the playoff and then progress to the next round,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Everton team whose current form has taken to them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish was me turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed 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

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the stadium 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 letter o’ the day, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the regularity of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.