Chelsea suffered a 1-0 defeat against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City at Stamford Bridge last night. The Blues have now just won one in their last eight matches as they failed to move up from 10th position in the table.
The west London outfit have not won in their last four matches against City after being dumped out of the Carabao Cup at the hands of Pep Guardiola's side before the World Cup break. Graham Potter has some serious problems to fix if Chelsea are going to secure a top four finish come the end of the season.
The Blues invested heavily in new signings during the summer transfer window and have already signed David Datro Fofana and Benoit Badiashile in January. football.london understands Todd Boehly is looking to add a new striker, central midfielder and right wing-back to Potter's squad following Badiashile's arrival, but there remains deeper issues that need correcting on the pitch.
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So, football.london takes a look at how the national media reacted to Chelsea's defeat against City as the Blues failed to leapfrog Potter's former side, Brighton, in the Premier League table.
With just 20 goals, Chelsea were by far the lowest scorers in top half of the Premier League table before Thursday night's match. Unfortunately, they looked toothless again against the champions. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who replaced Raheem Sterling after just five minutes, led the line alongside Kai Havertz but they were both completely anonymous - and Aubameyang was even hauled off in the 68th minute.
Young prospect Omari Hutchinson was tasked with trying to fire the Blues back in the game, but it was too much to ask from a player who has had precious little top-flight experience. Chelsea are apparently ready to splash the cash in January to bolster their squad. Thursday night underlined why, and where, they need to do so.
Sterling, who was playing against his former club in the Premier League for the first time since his summer switch, lasted just five minutes after picking up what appeared to be a hamstring issue. And things got even worse for Potter when Christian Pulisic left the pitch in distress just 10 minutes after Aubameyang had replaced the stricken Sterling.
While it's unlikely Potter is under any serious strain from the Stamford Bridge hierarchy, results and performances since the World Cup have left fans seriously underwhelmed. The last thing the former Brighton chief needs right now is another three names in the physio room. It's still early days, but already, patience appears to be wearing thin amongst the Stamford Bridge faithful.
The Chelsea manager had lost Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic to injuries in the early running, on the back of seeing Mason Mount ruled out with a training-ground knock. Potter can now count his senior absentees on all of his fingers and thumbs.
Potter had brought on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when Sterling limped off in the second minute but he would substitute the substitute as he chased the game. Hakim Ziyech was also hooked. Potter sent on the 19-year-old Omari Hutchinson for his debut on the right wing and the 18-year-old Lewis Hall at left-back, sticking with his 4-2-3-1 formation and simply rotating the personnel.
The equaliser never looked on and Potter was left to reflect on another blow to Chelsea’s hopes of a top-four finish. The club have attacked the January transfer market, announcing the capture of another centre-half – Benoit Badiashile from Monaco for £33.6million – before the game. They also want to add the midfielder Enzo Fernández from Benfica and the winger Mykhaylo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk.
It feels as though there are moving parts everywhere, a relatively new ownership group in a hurry to splash the cash and drive change quickly. But on the field, Potter’s team have taken just six points from an available 24. The table does not make for pretty reading. They are not only the fifth-placed team from the capital but the third from west London, behind Fulham and Brentford. Next up for them in the FA Cup on Sunday is an away game against City, who have already dumped them out of the Carabao Cup.
Really good teams have extra gears to go to when they need them while others do not. Here Manchester City found theirs and a tight Premier League game became a straight forward journey towards three points. Chelsea? Weighed down by injuries and a chronic lack of goals and confidence, they continue to travel backwards.
As for Graham Potter and Chelsea, the strife goes on. The Chelsea manager has overseen one win in eight league games now and having lost Mason Mount to injury in training he then saw Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic succumb to problems sustained in the early stages of this game.
From that point on, Chelsea were disjointed and though 19-year-old Carney Chukwuemeka struck a post just before half-time the sight of Sterling's replacement Pierre Emerick Aubameyang being hauled off. One of the things that will concern Potter is that this was a poor game only for as long as City allowed it to be. Once the champions raised their levels, Chelsea simply could not.
Potter's decision to hook Aubameyang as part of a triple change with just over twenty minutes to go spoke of a manager not afraid to make big calls but may cause him a short term problem. Aubameyang was hounded out of Arsenal by Mikel Arteta and there was a reason for that. Equally, Sterling was sold without hesitation by City last summer. Why do Chelsea buy players other big clubs do not want? That was one of many questions hanging in the air at full-time on Thursday night.
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