Although The London club avoided a total demolition of their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, securing a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.
The Central Problem: A Monotonous Inconsistency
Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of a European giant, 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 been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A.
Although pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.
“In my view tonight, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they played against Barcelona, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you look at the five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”
What Comes Next
To have any realistic chance of escaping the additional knockout round, they will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.
“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then go to the next round,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.
Side Stories
Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. 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” – a star striker explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.
Fan Correspondence
“Well, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium that they were always going to. Just showing up 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 letter o’ the day, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.
