Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of ending up in the highest eight places of the continental tournament opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining is that in the brief history of the recently revamped tournament, securing a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.
The Core Problem: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency
Sadly for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been stuffed by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.
Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that seems to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the manager maintains that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.
“I think in that game, starting team, we had on the field the majority of the team that play against Tottenham, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolverhampton, the Gunners,” he stated. “We had most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you see the several alterations that we did compared to previous game, it’s different.”
The Path Forward
To have any realistic chance of escaping the additional knockout 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, the Neapolitan side.
“We need to win both, otherwise, we try to play the playoff and then go to the following stage,” remarked the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position of the top half in the domestic league.
Side Stories
Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. 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” – a star striker explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.
Readers' Letters
“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this email 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” – one reader.
“I see that one correspondent not only got the previous featured letter, but also a name check in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could the city be proving that the regularity of representation in your mailbag is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – a different supporter.
