Will Chelsea’s Injury Crisis Cost Graham Potter His Job?
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When Graham Potter was announced as Chelsea manager back in September, much was made of the appointment. Four months later, the former Brighton boss is battling to save his job.
Over the past few years, Potter has established himself as one of the brightest British managers in the game. After cutting his teeth at Swedish side Ostersunds, the 47-year-old enjoyed a brief stint at Swansea City before revolutionizing Brighton.
There is no denying that Potter is a top-class coach. However, injuries to multiple key players have severely hampered his start to life at Stamford Bridge.
At the time of writing, the Blues have ten first-team players sidelined due to injury. Worse still, new signing Joao Felix will serve a three-match suspension after receiving a red card on his debut.
Armando Broja and Christian Pulisic are long-term injury absentees, while Raheem Sterling, Edouard Mendy and Ben Chilwell are sidelined for the foreseeable future.
With Denis Zakaria, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Reece James, Wesley Fofana and N’Golo Kante also expected to miss the next game or two, it’s safe to say that Chelsea are in the midst of an injury crisis.
Following Thursday’s 2-1 defeat to Fulham, Potter’s record at Chelsea stands at eight wins, four draws and seven losses across all competitions – giving him a win rate of 42.1%. That is not a terrible record, but it is nothing special.
Not only have the Blues lost five of their last seven Premier League games, but they have also won just one of their previous nine. As a result, they find themselves tenth in the table – ten points outside the Champions League places.
It is also worth noting that Chelsea are only ten points clear of the relegation zone. Of course, they will almost certainly avoid the drop. But they will need to turn things around quickly.
Chelsea have strengthened their squad with three new signings this month, signing French centre-back Benoit Badiashile from Monaco, Brazilian midfielder Andrey Santos from Vasco da Gama and Ivory Coast striker David Datro Fofana from Molde.
However, the club will likely need to make more signings before the transfer window closes if they want to provide the required cover for their injured stars.
Few would argue that Potter is not a high-quality manager with top-level coaching skills. But if he can’t get the best out of his injury-hit squad, he could find himself looking for a new job in the not-too-distant future.
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