Chelsea finally win as Dortmund game to define season
BREATHING ROOM: Chelsea's win over Leeds gives manager Graham Potter some breathing room. Pic: James Warwick
Graham Potter admitted that, for once in recent weeks, he was looking forward to an enjoyable Saturday evening. Victory over Leeds marked a small step towards lifting the gloom at Stamford Bridge but the head coach knows it will count for little if Chelsea fail to beat Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, Potter’s side must make the most of home advantage if they are to progress into the last eight of the Champions League. Failure to do so will bring a premature end to Chelsea’s season, with a top six finish and a place in next season’s Europa League their only realistic remaining target.
The relief felt within the stadium this weekend as the Blues survived a nervous end to the game to protect the slender advantage given them by Wesley Fofana’s first half header would quickly dissipate and the mood of supporters who have grown used to seeing their side compete until the last breaths of the campaign would inevitably sink if Tuesday serves up more disappointment.
Potter’s methods and approach have been increasingly questioned in recent weeks and while he has continued to receive the backing of the club’s owners, he faced Leeds knowing a second successive home defeat to a side locked in a relegation battle would have kicked away another pillar of support.
The head coach was careful to place the win against Javi Gracia’s side in an appropriate context and emphasised it would be work as normal on Sunday morning as preparations for Dortmund began in earnest. He was entitled, though, to believe he had witnessed signs of progress with Raheem Sterling and Fofana impressing as they continued their return from injury, and Joao Felix showing he is capable of playing a prominent role on the run-in.
There was also evidence of a commitment among the players to reverse the recent slide, particularly during the opening hour. The significance of this win will become clearer in the coming days - a trip to Leicester next weekend is followed by home meetings with Everton and Aston Villa in a run of games that ought to produce points - but the reaction of of Ruben Loftus-Cheek suggested the recent under-achievement weighs heavily on the dressing room.
“We came into this game thinking we have to win,” said the midfielder come wing-back. “For ourselves, and for the fans. Sometimes it gets like that, looking at yourselves, when you are in a poor run of form, not creating chances. We are Chelsea Football Club…we should be creating chances.
“It is obviously not nice to hear all the criticism coming our way at Chelsea to the manager, to the players. We had the poor run, so of course you are going to get that. But you will get that in today’s game and especially at Chelsea. A team like Chelsea, we can’t accept mediocrity. We understand we have been mediocre in this recent run, and we are not just accepting it. It might look like that from the outside, but that is not the case.”
Loftus-Cheek offered the kind of response Potter would want, and expect, to hear from players who have so far been spared the brunt of the criticism with the head coach firmly in the firing line. That criticism would have reached new levels had Chelsea failed to win after Potter had withdrawn Sterling and Felix, his two best players, in the 67th minute. He later explained the move was to protect the pair ahead of the Dortmund game and in doing so highlighted the difficult decisions a manager in his position has to make.
Potter’s willingness to accept responsibility for the team’s slide appears to have been appreciated by his squad. “We have massive respect for the manager, the way he has been sitting in front of the media with us in this poor form,” added Loftus-Cheek. “And he has stuck up for us players.”
Fine words, but it is results and performances that will turn things around starting against Dortmund where they cannot afford a repeat of the first leg display when a positive display was undermined by their failings in front of goal.
“It might be a mental thing, the difference in the way we have performed in the Champions League,” said Loftus-Cheek. “You make that change from the Premier League and it is a complete shift in your mind. And I think sometimes us players playing for Chelsea when the pressure is on in these big games in the Champions League, we always seem to rise to it.
“We obviously have a big game coming up against Dortmund here this week, and we expect to rise to that challenge. Anything can happen in the Champions League and we definitely think we can on Tuesday.”
: Arrizabalaga 6; Fofana 7, Koulibaly 5, Bdaiashile 6; Loftus-Cheek 6 (Chalobah 84, 6), Fernandez 7 (Madueke 84, 6) , Kovacic 6 (Chukwuemeka 74, 6), Chilwell 7; Sterling 8 (Zakaria 67, 6), Havertz 5, Felix 8 (Gallagher 67, 6).
Bettinelli, Aubameyang, Chalobah, Mudryk, Ziyech.
: Meslier 6; Ayling 6, Koch 7, Wober 6, Firpo 6; Adams 6, McKennie 7; Summerville 7, Aaronson 6 (Joseph 67, 6, Harrison 6 (Greenwood 80, 6); Rutter 6 (Gnonto 67, 6).
: Robles, Roca, Gyabi, Struijk, Kristensen, Gray.
: Michael Oliver 6.
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