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Although The Blues didn't entirely destroy their chances of finishing in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Core Issue: A Predictable Inconsistency

Unfortunately for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, the team have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a average team from Serie A.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see the coach rotate his team incessantly, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players 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 matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the several alterations that we did from the previous game, it’s different.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they welcome this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, 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 playoff and then progress to the next round,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he forced me to take up 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 Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters intended to visit 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” – a correspondent.

“I note 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 Sheffield teams once more dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.