Maresca's Unceasing Lineup Shuffling Has Chelsea Reeling.

While The London club avoided a total demolition of their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Naturally, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped tournament, securing a top-eight finish may not be as crucial as it seems.

The Central Concern: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic lack of consistency, which has been much remarked upon since their defeat in Italy. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, and then a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been stuffed by a Championship side, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now lost against a mid-table side from Serie A.

Although pundits have been quick to lay the blame on a team selection approach that appears to see Enzo Maresca change his lineup like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“I think tonight, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they played against Barca, they played against Wolverhampton, Arsenal,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for matches of this magnitude. So if you look at the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the additional knockout round, they will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. First up, they host this season’s surprise package a Cypriot team, then travel back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, Napoli.

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

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me turning pro in golf. That was his biggest dream. So when I was 10, he forced me to take up 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 scoring goals in the Premier League.

Fan Correspondence

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only good pre-match protests involve walking from a public house that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the stadium 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 featured letter, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again dropped points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.