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Graham Potter back to square one as Chelsea fans call for change again

Graham Potter back to square one as Chelsea fans call for change again - Getty Images/Rob Newell
Graham Potter back to square one as Chelsea fans call for change again - Getty Images/Rob Newell

Graham Potter tried a new look on the touchline, but this was the same old Chelsea under the beleaguered head coach who saw the pressure piled back on his position by Aston Villa.

Dressed in skinny black jeans and a hoodie for the first time, Potter saw everything he tried go wrong as Ollie Watkins became the first Villa player to score in five successive away games and John McGinn net for the first time in 47 club games.

He will not have been surprised to hear the jeers and shouts for him to go at the final whistle, given Potter has already been through it once before in his short Chelsea reign.

It will not have helped the mood of the Chelsea fans to have learned that the club’s former head coach Thomas Tuchel won his first game in charge of Bayern Munich, 4-2 against Borussia Dortmund.

Chelsea’s first-team coach Anthony Barry was not on the home bench, having been put on leave as he waits for the green light to join Tuchel in Munich. Set pieces are his main responsibility and McGinn’s second-half strike came from a Villa corner.

Having gone into the international break on the back of four games unbeaten, Potter finds his Chelsea team back to square one, in the bottom half of the table and fans yet again questioning his suitability for the job.

“I understand when you lose at home, the emotion of the game is such that people are going to be disappointed and frustrated, and angry,” said Potter. “Where we are in the League table, no one is happy with, so whatever criticism comes I have to accept.

“They (the players) are professional footballers, they play for Chelsea, they understand the demands, they understand what it is when we are where we are. They are not stupid, they accept the responsibility, they are honest, they want to do better. We are fighting for each other and fighting together, so there are no complaints from how the supporters respond.”

Potter’s decision to play two full-backs in his back three, instead of the fit and available Benoit Badiashile and Trevoh Chalobah, backfired as Marc Cucurella set Watkins up for Villa’s opener with an awful header that sent the striker through on goal.

Mykhaylo Mudryk, preferred as one of Potter’s three forwards ahead of Cristian Pulisic, Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher, missed two glorious chances, while the decision not to send on Mount in search of a goal was bizarre.

Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who Potter confirmed was fit, again watched from home as Chelsea failed to score, having been left out of the squad.

On his decisions, Potter said: “We wanted to attack, we wanted to use Reece (James) and Marc as two laterals, we thought that’s where the space would be and they can construct attacks well. But it’s an error for the first goal and whenever there’s an error, there’s always something you can do better.

“With Mason, I just felt we were there in the game. We had made some attacking subs and we wanted to see how it all landed. Mason’s coming back, he’s only had a couple of days training.”

Villa’s victory meant they leapfrogged Chelsea, who now prepare for the visit of Liverpool on Tuesday night in the bottom half of the table with pressure back on Potter’s shoulders.

Potter will know that Chelsea are yet to beat a side in the top half of the table and seven of their final 10 games of the season are against teams above them, which suggests things could even get worse before they get better.

“We’ve no time to feel sorry for ourselves,” said Potter. “We have to respond and we have to prepare for another big game, it’s as simple as that. We have to prepare for the match and get ready for it.”

Other than Chelsea’s tough league run, there is the small matter of a Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid on the horizon, which may prove decisive to Potter’s hopes of keeping his job until the summer if other results do not quickly improve.