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Maresca's Unceasing Rotation Has Chelsea Off Balance.
While The Blues didn’t completely torpedo their prospects of finishing in the highest eight places of the European competition opening phase, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of automatically qualifying for the knockout stages. Naturally, the silver lining is that in the short one-year history of the new and not-necessarily-improved tournament, securing a place in the top eight may not be as crucial as it seems.
The Central Concern: A Predictable Lack of Consistency
Sadly for the club's supporters, the sole predictable element about Enzo Maresca’s side is a reliably erratic inconsistency, which has been much remarked upon following their defeat in Bergamo. After seemingly confirming their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, and then a feisty stalemate with a London rival, Chelsea have been defeated by Leeds, played out a snoozy stalemate at Bournemouth and have now lost against a mid-table side from Italy's top flight.
Although critics have been eager to point the finger on a selection policy that seems to see Enzo Maresca rotate his team constantly, the Chelsea head coach insists that, injuries and suspensions aside, the core of his starting lineup for big matches is mostly fixed.
“I think tonight, starting team, we had on the field eight, nine players that play against Tottenham, they played against Barca, they played 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 look at the five changes that we did from the Bournemouth game, it’s a different situation.”
What Comes Next
To have any realistic chance of escaping the additional knockout round, they will have to win their final two group games. In the first, they welcome the unexpected contenders a Cypriot team, before heading back to Italy to face the Serie A champions, the Neapolitan side.
“Victories in both are required, otherwise, we try to play the extra round and then progress to the following stage,” sniffed Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Everton team whose recent consistency has taken to them to the surprising position of seventh in the domestic league.
Other Notes
Quote of the Day: “You know, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me becoming a professional golfer. That was his ultimate ambition. So when I was 10, he pushed me to take up golf. So I played golf every week from when I was 10 to 13” – Erling Haaland explained how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than tearing it up in the Premier League.
Readers' Letters
“Well, no wonder Wolves 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 intended to visit 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 mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield once more surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of representation in your letters section is inversely related to the success of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.
Brian Hernandez
A passionate writer and shopping enthusiast with a keen eye for quality products and lifestyle trends.
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