Graham Potter faces a litmus test after Southampton’s loss as supporters heap pressure on the manager.
Thomas Tuchel is still admired by Chelsea fans but Graham Potter will be hoping he doesn’t leave Stamford Bridge off the back of a similar run of results
Graham Potter faces a test to better Thomas Tuchel in more ways than one. After six months in charge he’s a long way from winning the Champions League or winning over the fans like his predecessor, though.
By the time fans were allowed to stream back into stadiums in the second half of 2021 and watch Tuchel’s Chelsea they were a ruthless machine. His quotes on making a team to be feared galvanised spectators, too.
There was an almost instant connection with a manager that had been doubted at first. Right up until he was sacked in September last year many were strongly behind him, despite growing evidence that things weren’t going smoothly.
For a start, Chelsea’s 2022 didn’t just fall short at the start of the new season. Tuchel’s record had slowly been getting worse. His first 50 games and second 50 are chalk and cheese: it was a gradual decline.
The former Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain coach wasn’t just let go for his poor run to the season, it went beyond that and came from a deteriorating relationship with the owners off the back of a hopeless and shambolic pre-season. Outside of unexpected and remarkable losses to Leeds and Southampton, Chelsea had been terrible.
The bad run effectively started in March 2022. From the point that Roman Abramovich put the club up for sale things started to turn. Given the nature of the test and emotional strain, that was understandable. It just meant that when Tuchel fell to an opening game defeat in the Champions League against Dinamo Zagreb, the internal state was worse than previously thought.
Now it’s Potter’s turn to get through the mess. In an eerie omen, Tuchel’s last three games in charge were against West Ham, a defeat to Southampton and a 1-0 away European loss. Potter may be fearing the worst. His last three matches have now been against West Ham, a defeat to Southampton, with an away Champions League loss in the middle.
It’s Tottenham up next for Potter next Sunday and he may well be hoping that fixture rolls round quickly before Chelsea history can repeat itself. There is undoubted pressure on him now from the fanbase and it’s a question of whether the owners will blink first.
The run of one win in 10 and three in 15 now makes this worse than any manager was allowed during the Abramovich era, going back all the way to 1995.
Many have already made their minds up on the 47-year-old and overturning that will be just as big of a challenge as any he has faced on the pitch.
source: www.football.london
