Potter blames the ‘basics’ as ‘everything that can go wrong’ keeps going wrong at Chelsea

Except for Potter himself of course

Another day, another defeat as Graham Potter continues to plumb new depths in charge of Chelsea Football Club. As an institution, Chelsea have prided ourselves on making history, not reliving it, so kudos to The Chosen One for guiding us to results not seen in a quarter century, if not more.

With 6 points collected from 9 games, we’re on our worst run of form in the league since April 1996. Fulham’s win was their first against us since 2006 and only their second in the last 36 tries.

One would think it cannot get any worse, but we’re still only just midtable. There’s plenty of space below.

Potter called this the “Hardest Job In Football”, which is of course hilarious considering that he is unsackable. If anything, this is the easiest job in football. Win or lose, it doesn’t matter. There’s no pressure to actually perform. Consequences? What consequences? João Félix’s silly red card is yet another convenient excuse. Sorry, “reason”.

Can you truly expect the players to perform any differently? How many times over the past 20 years have seen just how much impact a manager can have on individual performances? There’s no(t much) “player power” at the club these days; and that’s great … except when the manager projects a midtable mentality. It all starts at the top, always.

“It sums up where we are at the moment — everything that can go wrong, is going wrong.

“[But] in the end it is a disappointing evening for us. It was a fairly even first half I thought. It was a bit of a mess for the first goal, which we needed to do better with. With the greatest respect it was more just basic defensive actions we need to do better with.”

If we win, cool. When we lose, well, it’s out of our hands really. Should we do something different next time? Nah. Should we just cross our fingers and hope things will just fix themselves on their own, simply with time? Bold plan.

You know, Todd, there’s no high draft pick coming if we finish near the bottom of the table.

“It’s really frustrating and incredibly challenging. I feel for the supporters. We’re disappointed to lose tonight. […] I can also understand [the fans] are frustrated because we’ve lost. That is normal. I made sure I went over and clapped them because you appreciate the support. It’s not easy. We’re suffering and they are suffering. So we feel for them and feel their disappointment.

“I think it’s important we stick together and try to get through this tough period, because it really is a tough period.”

One of my favorite quotes about football management is the one attributed to Giovanni Trapattoni, about good managers making their teams 10 per cent better and bad managers making their teams 30 per cent worse. In Potter’s case, we might have to adjust that second number a bit higher.