Chelsea and Graham Potter are waiting for a healthier everyday life
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The final whistle on Tuesday night was feared to be the final whistle of Chelsea’s season and Graham Potter’s stay in London.
Rather, it was a starting point.
Well, I’m well aware that this is still an unfinished project with all sorts of gameplay concerns. I know most things still indicate this season will be summed up as a fiasco when it comes down to it. Because it would take a miracle of religious proportions for Chelsea to move up enough in the Premier League table to be something to remember.
But here it was possible to write the last, final chapter.
Because this Champions League adventure is the last remaining chance for Chelsea to get direct results from the more than seven billion crowns spent on the team since the change of ownership last summer.
Most columnists, including yours really, have spent the ten-minute delay in kick-off (amusingly because Dortmund didn’t catch the bus in time) finding that perfect wording for the final act in question. To thank Graham Potter CD for showing interest.
The final chapter was also written for the majority of the first half, when it sounded exactly as expected – i.e. a carbon copy of the first meeting. Chelsea did a lot right and created a lot. But at the same time, under a kind of defensive spell that prevented the ball from making its way into Dortmund’s net. If it was Kalidou Koulibaly who knocked the ball out (!) from an open goal or if it was Kai Havertz who recognized the posts and the ends of the cage.
In other words, it looked like Chelsea under Graham Potter.
The relief was noticeable
The former Östersund coach was, and still is, the most rewarding job in world football at the same time. After all, his squad is so packed and a mess that he dumped Mark Cucurella straight into the CL’s starting lineup after two straight games in the stands for tactical reasons – as a replacement for one of those winter signings who aren’t signed up to play in the Champions League in the spring.
To top it all off, all conceivable margins were on the wrong side for him and his club. Even as he picked up that vital victory at Leeds recently, he drew bemused looks from the media – for his unconscious use of the Swedish language.
He’s been under constant pressure, in constant play on the box, since day one.
It all makes that 1-0 goal at the end of the first half so clear and redemptive.
For Raheem Sterling it seemed at first that he squandered that chance that appeared in the penalty area, just as he squandered, for the record, every offside opportunity he had found so far in the match. But a careful and unlucky Fine later, the ball drilled straight into the roof of the net. The relief for the pound was evident. Perhaps above all Graham Potter. Or yes, the full relief of Stamford Bridge.
Because suddenly the margins turned blue when they needed it most.
Even for Kai Havertz.
Then even he can not miss
If anyone has summed up Chelsea’s utter inability to take chances, it’s the German winger, who has mostly been criticized for his inability to score goals since his arrival in 2020.
The team’s top scorer this season? It is anyway, which really says the most about Chelsea in 2022/23.
The match-winning penalty kick here? He did, though it was an incredibly forced goal from a penalty that was caught by VAR. Of course, he pulled it first inside the post before, after referee Danny McKelley deemed the yellow-clad players were too early in the box, he got another chance.
Then even Kai Havertz could not miss.
Of course Raheem Sterling sneaked in again before the final whistle and of course it’s still Chelsea’s concern that you need too much for every goal (shouldn’t they concede a third anyway?).
But when the final whistle blew in the chilly London air, it wasn’t the final whistle to Chelsea’s season and Potter’s sojourn in London that many of us had previously thought.
It looked like a springboard.
For Chelsea spring with dreams of the title alive, it may take a lot for them to get going in reality.
For a healthier and more peaceful Graham Potter day’s work.
For this long term project Chelsea.