The Manager's Unceasing Team Changes Puts Chelsea Reeling.

While The Blues avoided a total demolition of their prospects of finishing in the top eight of the European competition opening phase, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Concern: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their loss in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

While critics have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that appears to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Tottenham, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. First up, they host this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we will face the extra round and then go to the following stage,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he pushed me to start on golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed 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 regular reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching from a public house that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the ground that they were always going to. Just arriving 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – one reader.

“I note that a reader not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.