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Although The London club didn’t completely torpedo their hopes of finishing in the top eight of the Bigger Cup opening phase, they performed a targeted blow on their own hopes of waltzing straight into the round of 16. Of course, the silver lining 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 Issue: A Monotonous Inconsistency

Unfortunately for the club's supporters, the only consistent thing about Enzo Maresca’s side is a monotonously predictable inconsistency, which has been widely discussed following their loss in Bergamo. After apparently rubber-stamping their credentials with an commanding victory of Barcelona, followed by a bad-tempered draw with a London rival, the team have been defeated by Leeds, played out a dull draw at the south coast club and have now lost against a average team from Serie A.

While pundits have been eager to point the finger on a team selection approach that appears to see the coach change his lineup like a kebab shop’s elephant leg of doner meat, the manager insists that, knack and naughty step permitting, the nucleus of his first eleven for big matches is largely set in stone.

“I think tonight, first XI, we had on the field the majority of the team that featured against Spurs, they played against Barcelona, they played against Wolves, Arsenal,” he droned. “There were eight, nine players that are the ones playing every time for matches of this magnitude. So if you see the several alterations that we did from the previous game, it’s a different situation.”

What Comes Next

To have any realistic chance of avoiding the Bigger Cup playoff round, they will have to be victorious in their final two group games. In the first, they host this season’s surprise package Pafos, then travel back to Italy 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 following stage,” remarked Maresca, whose following fixture is a match against an Merseyside team whose current form has propelled them to the dizzy heights of the top half in the Premier League.

Other Notes

Quote of the Day: “It's interesting, it’s somewhat ironic because his biggest dream was me turning pro in golf. That was his ultimate ambition. 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 revealed how, had his dad got his way, he could have been teeing off rather than scoring goals in the Premier League.

Readers' Letters

“So, no wonder Wolves are in such a sad state. As any longtime reader of this email 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 note that a reader not only got Tuesday’s featured letter, but also a mention in another reader's letter. On a night where both clubs from Sheffield again surrendered points after leading, I am led to ponder: could Sheffield be proving that the regularity of appearances in your mailbag is inversely proportional to the value of anything our teams are achieving on the field?” – another fan.