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Although The Blues didn't entirely destroy their chances of finishing in the top eight of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of strolling directly into the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Concern: A Predictable Inconsistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their defeat in Italy. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side 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 insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that featured against Tottenham, they played against Barca, they played against Wolves, 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 from the previous game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then progress to the next round,” remarked the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a game against an Everton team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “You know, it’s actually funny because his greatest wish 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 played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland revealed how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any regular reader of this email will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the stadium that they were inevitably 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 Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the regularity of representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.