The Manager's Unceasing Team Changes Has Chelsea in a Spin.

While The Blues didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament group stage, they executed a precise, surgical strike on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Issue: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon following their defeat in Italy. Since seemingly confirming their quality with an impressive beat-down of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a average team from Serie A.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup constantly, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, first XI, we had inside the pitch the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he stated. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the previous game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of avoiding the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to win their remaining two matches. In the first, they welcome the unexpected contenders Pafos, then travel back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the playoff and then progress to the next round,” sniffed Maresca, whose next appointment is a match against an Everton team whose recent consistency has propelled them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the domestic league.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream 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 practiced every week from when I was 10 to 13” – a star striker revealed how, had his dad got his way, 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 sad state. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters planned to be at 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” – a correspondent.

“I note that one correspondent 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 surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the regularity of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.