The Manager's Constant Lineup Shuffling Has Chelsea Reeling.

Although Chelsea didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of ending up in the top eight of the European competition opening phase, they executed a targeted blow on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the round of 16. Of course, the good news is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved competition, achieving a top-eight finish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Central 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 widely discussed since their loss in Italy. 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 mid-table side from Serie A.

Although pundits have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that appears to see the coach rotate his team incessantly, the manager insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the nucleus of his first eleven for games against strong opposition is mostly fixed.

“In my view tonight, first XI, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they play against Barca, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “We had eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for these kind of games. So if you look at the several alterations that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”

The Path Forward

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to be victorious in their remaining two matches. In the first, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to the continent to face the Italian title holders, Napoli.

“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then progress to the next round,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a match against an Everton team whose current form has taken to them to the dizzy heights of seventh in the Premier League.

Other Notes

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, if his father had his preference, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the top flight.

Fan Correspondence

“Well, no wonder Wolverhampton Wanderers are in such a poor situation. As any longtime reader of this column will know, the only effective pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the stadium that they were inevitably going to. Just showing up 10 minutes late? That’s how long it takes fans to get to their seats anyway” – a correspondent.

“I note that a reader not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a mention in a separate letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely proportional to the success of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.