Potter ‘pressure’ grows ahead of ‘internal talks’ amid availability of manager Boehly ‘admires’

Graham Potter is ‘again’ under ‘pressure’ at Chelsea after his side fell into the bottom half of the Premier League following Aston Villa’s 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge, as per Fabrizio Romano.

Potter’s situation in west London worsened after Saturday’s home defeat left them 11th in the Premier League with a negative goal difference.

The former Brighton boss left the Amex to join the Blues in September after Thomas Tuchel was dismissed by Todd Boehly.

He got off to a strong start but his first Premier League defeat opened the floodgates.

Chelsea cruised through to the last 16 of the Champions League but have fallen further and further away from the top four in the Premier League despite their ambitious spending in the winter transfer window.

Potter is dealing with an extremely bloated squad as a result and is clearly still trying to work out the most effective system and which players are best suited to his style of play.

The Chelsea hierarchy has always remained faithful to Potter and they believe he is the right man for the job in the long term, but the club’s results are doing him no favours whatsoever.

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Qualification for the Europa Conference League seems very unlikely at this stage – let alone the Champions League – and it will be interesting to see if Potter is still in charge come the end of the season.

The availability of Julian Nagelsmann – who was relieved of his duties as Bayern Munich manager last week – has added more pressure on Potter.

According to Fabrizio Romano, the German has ‘always been appreciated’ by the Chelsea board and is ‘considered a future top coach’.

Following the defeat at home to Villa, there will be ‘internal’ discussions about Potter’s future at the club.

With Nagelsmann available and Chelsea now in the bottom half of the Premier League, his situation is ‘something to keep an eye on’, Romano claims.

‘Pressure is growing again’ on Potter as the club’s hierarchy ‘expect different results’ after spending over £600million in two transfer windows.

The only route into the Champions League for Chelsea is to win this season’s competition.

They face reigning European champions Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. The first leg will be played on April 12 at the Santiago Bernabeu.

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