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Although The London club didn't entirely destroy their chances of ending up in the top eight of the continental tournament opening phase, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Problem: A Predictable Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their loss in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate 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 mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team incessantly, the manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Tottenham, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the five changes that we did from the previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. First up, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, if not, we try to play the playoff and then progress to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream 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 explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, 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 pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground 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 note that a reader not only got the previous letter o’ the day, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.