The Manager's Constant Rotation Puts Chelsea in a Spin.

While Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own chances of waltzing straight into the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Problem: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a bad-tempered draw 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 Serie A.

While pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they play against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you see the several alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. First up, they welcome the unexpected contenders Pafos, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then go to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the surprising position of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “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 explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any regular 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 stadium that they were inevitably going to. Just arriving 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – a correspondent.

“I see that one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of appearances in your letters section is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.