The Chelsea supervisor, Graham Potter, believes he’s in the middle of essentially the most “challenging” spell of his managerial occupation. Tuesday’s 2-0 victory over Bournemouth – secured by means of Kai Havertz and Mason Mount objectives – ended a six-game home winless run, and was once in particular pleasurable given Potter was once with out 8 senior gamers.
“It’s been a really tough period, as challenging as there has been in my time as a coach,” Potter stated. “But you know, we’re Chelsea and people don’t want to hear those reasons, stroke excuses. You’ve got to get on with it and try your best to find the answers.”
Despite the positive result Potter suffered a further injury blow with Reece James withdrawn early in the second half after a recurrence of the knee injury that caused him to miss the World Cup. It was James’ first appearance since limping off against Milan in October.
With N’Golo Kanté and Wesley Fofana both recently having experienced setbacks as they approached returns, Potter was asked whether Chelsea’s long absentee list was purely down to bad fortune.
“I don’t think you should completely throw it at something that you can’t do anything about,” he answered. “There’s a component of good fortune after all, after which there will be different issues, like I stated, that occur. But that is for us to check out to be told from and take a look at to get well with. It’s been a difficult season. I do not understand how pre-season was once. I wasn’t right here so I will be able to’t remark.
Chelsea travel to second-bottom Nottingham Forest on New Year’s Day. All three of Steve Cooper’s side’s top-flight wins to date have come at the City Ground, so Potter expects a difficult afternoon.
“You all the time need to be cautious within the Premier League,” he said. “You can’t say on the one hand that it’s the greatest league in the world and then think there’s easy games. I’ve got huge respect for Steve Cooper. The job that he’s done there is tremendous. He’s a fantastic coach.
“The atmosphere will be hostile. They are back in the Premier League for the first year for a long, long time. So every game, especially Chelsea coming to town, is a big game for them. They’ll be motivated, they’ll have the quality and they’ll be fighting for the points. We have to be ready.
Potter can have Mateo Kovacic and Hakim Ziyech – who each performed on the World Cup – to be had, however goalkeeper Édouard Mendy stays in doubt.
