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While Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their chances of finishing in the highest eight places of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they executed 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 competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their defeat in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.

While critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that seems to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the several alterations that we did from the previous game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, then travel back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“We need to win both, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then go to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he forced me to start on golf. So I practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

“So, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking 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” – one reader.

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