Graham Potter is under even more pressure after Tottenham took apart his Chelsea side on Sunday to consolidate their place in the top four while leaving the Blues’ season in ruins.
Oliver Skipp scored his first goal for Tottenham to set them on their way and another home-grown player, Harry Kane, finished off this expensively-assembled but dysfunctional Chelsea side.
Spurs are now 14 points ahead of Chelsea, who have won only twice in their past 15 games and have scored only 23 goals in the league, half of Tottenham’s total so far. Indeed Chelsea have scored only once in the past six games, despite spending over £600m on players since Todd Boehly and the Clearlake Consortium bought out Roman Abramovich last summer.
Boehly was watching at Tottenham and visited the players in their dressing room after their third successive defeat, and some reports suggest Potter has been given two more games to turn the situation around and save his job.
Embed from Getty ImagesFans at Stamford Bridge were calling for Potter to go after last week’s home defeat by Southampton, and there is likely to be more hostility if they fail to beat Leeds next weekend.
Unsurprisingly social media is even more full of “Potter Out” messages, and the manager acknowledges that he has not won over the fans with a winning start, nor built up a reservoir of goodwill to see him through this tough period.
“I haven’t done enough at this club to have too much good faith. I accept that. My job isn’t to worry too much about that. I understand the question, but I have to keep focusing on the team and helping the players.
“I also know that we’ve had a tough period of time where confidence isn’t massively high and we’ve had a bit of a tough situation, but I know the personality of the group and the dressing room.
“The response this week in training has been fantastic. We just haven’t been able to transfer that into results on the pitch, it’s frustrating. We’re suffering, the players are hurting, and I take responsibility for that.”
Chelsea host relegation threatened Leeds United this weekend, who won their first game under new boss Javi Gracia by beating fellow strugglers Southampton 1-0 on Saturday.
It is a game Potter may not be able to afford to lose given the pressure he is under, but the Blues head coach insists he is not focusing on the criticism from supporters.
“I can’t necessarily think too much about 40, 50, 60,000 people. I need to focus on what I can control which is the next day and the next training session,” he added.
“But our supporters, I would say, have been very fair. They’ve supported the team and I have absolutely no complaints with the supporters. They are entitled to be frustrated, upset and angry with the results and that’s my responsibility.
“We were talking before the game about watching the (Arsenal) All Or Nothing and two years into Mikel’s (Arteta) reign he’s close to getting the sack, people are wanting him out and it’s a disaster. Obviously now things have changed a little bit.
“That’s just the way it is. If you look at Jurgen’s (Klopp) situation, they haven’t got the results and all of a sudden people want him out. That’s just the nature of football.
“You can’t stop the questions, and while the results are like they are then I accept it. It’s part of the job.”
