After a nightmare begin to his Chelsea profession, Graham Potter is left hoping historical past will repeat itself for the troubled London membership.
The strain remains to be on the Chelsea supervisor, even after Saturday’s much-needed win in opposition to Leeds.
And it’s going to solely develop if his staff fails to overturn a 1-0 first-leg loss to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League spherical of 16 on Tuesday.
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European membership soccer’s largest prize represents Chelsea’s final probability of silverware this season and sure its solely route again into the competitors subsequent time period.
Potter, nevertheless, might be inspired by the undeniable fact that Chelsea’s earlier two triumphs in the Champions League got here in equally troubled campaigns.
Chelsea was topped champion of Europe for the first time in 2012 after firing then-manager Andre Villas-Boas in March and turning to former participant Roberto di Matteo to salvage the season.
He did greater than that – profitable a Champions League and FA Cup double in lower than three months in cost.
Thomas Tuchel was employed to interchange Frank Lampard in January 2021 with a top-four end wanting in jeopardy. The German went on to the seize the membership’s second Champions League title 4 months later.
It was typical of former proprietor Roman Abramovich’s reign, when Chelsea made a behavior of discovering success on the area, regardless of chaos off it.
There is little signal of that this yr, nevertheless, in a marketing campaign that has been unravelling since October.
Under new house owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital there was main upheaval – from firing the vastly fashionable Tuchel to embarking on a spectacular switch spend of round $660 million. But their first 10 months in cost have additionally seen the staff spiral downwards with Potter managing simply three wins in the Premier League since mid-October.
It is an alarming run that has introduced Potter’s future into query simply six months into the job. And whereas the win in opposition to Leeds has at the very least ended a six-game winless sequence in all competitions, it’s going to take far more to persuade followers he’s the proper man to take the membership ahead.
Dortmund has been seen as essential to Potter turning his reign round, with elimination leaving him with little to play for in the remaining months of the season and little to sit up for subsequent time period.
“We have to play well, be positive. It’s a special occasion for us to try to get into the last eight of the Champions League,” Potter mentioned Monday. “We’ve had some games where we could’ve scored more than one and we need that performance tomorrow night. We’re playing against a top team, a team that is in a good place with the wins they’ve had. The boys are in a good place and are motivated. We want to give it our best.”
Some followers already consider Potter’s time is up.
An on-line place calling for him to be fired had almost 50,000 signatures.
Potter hopes that dissent just isn’t on present at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
“Fans are always entitled to air their views and they are suffering like the rest of us,” he mentioned. “They want the team to go through and progress, and they know how important they are. We want to make it tough for Dortmund and they will help do that.”
N’Golo Kante won’t be out there for the match regardless of returning to coaching after being out with a hamstring harm since August.
Potter will make a late resolution on Reece James following a good hamstring, however Christian Pulisic is in the squad after a knee drawback.
Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi scored the solely objective in the first leg, however will miss the recreation after failing to get better from a muscle harm in time.
Goalkeeper Gregor Kobel missed Dortmund’s 2-1 win over Leipzig on Friday with a reported thigh harm and was changed by Alexander Mayer, however has travelled with the squad to London.
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