The Manager's Relentless Lineup Shuffling Leaves Chelsea Spinning.

While The Blues avoided a total demolition of their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the European competition opening phase, they performed a precise, surgical strike on their own chances of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the good news is that in the brief history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Issue: A Predictable Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about the Chelsea team is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their loss in Bergamo. Since seemingly confirming their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by a Championship side, played out a dull draw 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 appears to see the coach change his lineup incessantly, the Chelsea head coach maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view in that game, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that featured against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he stated. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones consistently selected for these kind of games. So if you see the five changes that we did from the previous game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the Bigger Cup playoff round, Chelsea will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they host the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, if not, we will face the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose following fixture is a match against an Everton team whose current form has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the Premier League.

Side Stories

Quote of the Day: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his greatest wish was me turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to start on golf. So I practiced 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 top flight.

Readers' Letters

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this email will know, the only good pre-match protests involve marching 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 letter o’ the day, but also a name check in another reader's letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams again dropped points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the regularity of representation in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.