Maresca's Relentless Rotation Has Chelsea Spinning.

Although Chelsea didn't entirely destroy their chances of ending up in the top eight of the continental tournament group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, achieving a place in the top eight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Core Problem: A Predictable Lack of Consistency

Sadly for Stamford Bridge regulars, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their quality with an commanding victory of a European giant, followed by a bad-tempered draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Italy's top flight.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that appears to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the manager maintains that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, starting team, we had inside the pitch eight, nine players that play against Spurs, they play against Barcelona, they play against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “We had 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 compared to Bournemouth game, it’s different.”

What Comes Next

For a genuine opportunity of escaping the additional knockout round, Chelsea will have to be victorious in their final two group games. First up, they welcome this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.

“We need to win both, if not, we will face the playoff and then progress to the next round,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Merseyside team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.

Other Notes

Notable Comment: “It's interesting, it’s actually funny because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. 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 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 Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any regular reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve marching from a pub that the supporters intended to visit anyway, to the ground that they were inevitably 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 a reader not only got the previous featured letter, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both Sheffield teams once more surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your mailbag is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – a different supporter.