Following their latest defeat in the London derby, which saw Chelsea suffer a first defeat to Tottenham in nine league games, the pressure on Graham Potter, which seems to have no ending continually grows.
Three consecutive defeats. Winless in six. One win in eleven games. Four goals in eleven games since the turn of the year. None of his predecessors at Chelsea would have been pardoned for this but understandably, the approach of the new owner is different in this respect.
Speaking in an interview after the defeat in North London, Graham Potter said:
“We were talking before the game about watching the Arsenal All or Nothing [documentary]. Two years into Mikel Arteta’s reign he was close to getting the sack and people wanted him out. It was seen as a disaster but things have now changed a bit.”
However, as much as it is easy to conclude that the Chelsea’s project under Potter is like that of Arsenal under Mikel Arteta, one can not just neglect the vast difference in their setup, even in Arteta’s early days.
In 2019, when Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham defeated Arsenal by two goals to nothing, the Portuguese former Chelsea boss had this to say about their local rivals at full time.
“I want to say congratulations to Mikel. Tactically they are becoming so, so good. I’ve been in football for a long time and I can read situations in advance, Arteta is doing a fantastic job. Massive trust to youth, massive man management.”
“I know people will laugh because they’re 14th, but they’ll be threat when he gets his plan across and I told him that. I hope he gets time, I’m saying to Arsenal fans, with him Arsenal will be Arsenal again.”
This is evidence that even when the results were very poor, there’s still something positive about Arsenal and also the level of players available at his disposal, at that time, the quality was low, which isn’t the same at Chelsea.
Not to forget, it was around that same period that Arsenal beat Manchester City and Chelsea on their way to winning the Emirates FA Cup while also beating Liverpool in the league and Community Shield final in Wembley.
Graham Potter has also conceded frustration in the camp due to the poor results. Also talking after the defeat, the former Brighton manager said;
“I know the responsibility. It’s not good enough for this club and so I take full responsibility for those results. It isn’t good enough for Chelsea.”
“The players gave it everything, they are hurting. It’s my responsibility.”
The sentence ‘the players gave it everything’ has become a custom for the manager even as the poor results persists. This takes us back to a comment made by Jose Mourinho in 2019, aimed at Frank Lampard when the former midfielder was in charge at Chelsea.
Mourinho said;
“When you start accepting defeats just because your team played well and just because your players gave their best, a performance for people to be proud of… I think when you get used to it, that’s when the big clubs stop being big clubs.”
Chelsea are currently tenth in the league, and looking at their remaining fixtures, given they still have to play the like of Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle and the two Manchester clubs, it doesn’t get any kind on the manager.
At some point, Todd Boehly and the Chelsea hierarchy will have to succumb to reality, and accept that maybe they have made a mistake from the start, and Graham Potter is not the man to lead the club going forward
Author : Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
3 Comments
Truth is that Potter is never a good option for Chelsea, the job is beyond him and he doesn't have capacity to manage Chelsea.
Every suggestions you gave Chelsea have been done except hiring Potter. Who will tick all Chelsea's box just like Man United ETH?
They think all processes will be like arsenal's