🔗 Share this article The Manager's Constant Team Changes Puts Chelsea Spinning. While The Blues avoided a total demolition of their chances of finishing in the highest eight places of the European competition group stage, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of strolling directly into the round of 16. Naturally, the good news is that in the brief history of the recently revamped competition, achieving a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems. The Core Concern: A Monotonous Lack of Consistency Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable lack of consistency, which has been widely discussed since their defeat in Italy. Since apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an impressive beat-down of Barcelona, followed by a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now been beaten by a mid-table side from Serie A. Although critics have been quick to lay the blame on a selection policy that seems to see the coach rotate his team constantly, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the core of his first eleven for big matches is mostly fixed. “I think in that game, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Spurs, they play against Barca, they played against Wolves, the Gunners,” he droned. “There were most of the regulars that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s different.” What Comes Next To have any realistic chance of avoiding the additional knockout round, they will have to win their final two group games. First up, they welcome this season’s surprise package Pafos, before heading back to the continent to face the Serie A champions, Napoli. “Victories in both are required, otherwise, we will face the playoff and then go to the following stage,” sniffed the Italian coach, whose next appointment is a game against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled 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 greatest wish was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his biggest dream. 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” – Erling Haaland explained how, if his father had his preference, he could have been on the golf course rather than scoring goals 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 good pre-match protests involve walking from a pub that the supporters planned to be at anyway, to the ground 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” – one reader. “I see that a reader not only got Tuesday’s letter o’ the day, 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 wondering: could the city be proving that the frequency of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the value of anything our teams are accomplishing on the field?” – another fan.