Crisis is engulfing Chelsea as Leeds United roll into town. Graham Potter’s side have scored once in 10 hours on the field, no team has scored fewer than the Blues in the top flight since November 5 and a winless run of eight league away games is the club’s worst sequence of form since 2001.
Furthermore, Potter’s win percentage of 29.4 per cent in the league is the lowest of any manager the Stamford Bridge outfit have had since the Premier League’s inception. If you extrapolated Chelsea’s points per game under Potter across an entire season, along with the rest of the league’s average since his appointment, they would finish 15th.
You could not pick a better time to play them. Enter the Whites.
READ MORE: Tyler Adams confident Georginio Rutter has the 'quality to succeed' at Leeds United
The importance of a first goal in any game is readily talked up as hugely significant, but this London side is so brittle at the moment, recent form would suggest it decides the result. If Leeds, so worryingly blunt on Tuesday, can draw first blood they would be well set to see out the three points.
The Blues have conceded first, in all competitions, on 12 occasions this season, but then only avoided defeat in three of those games. Those were Thomas Tuchel’s last game against West Ham United in September, Graham Potter’s debut at Crystal Palace in the last minute and then in a Champions League dead rubber against Dinamo Zagreb.
In the nine matches they have fallen behind in since then, Chelsea have lost every time. It’s not even a Potter problem, this resistance to losses or an absence of leadership stretches back to Tuchel and Frank Lampard’s reigns.
If Leeds really can repeat Tuesday’s levels of chance creation, but stick one or two of them away, Javi Gracia could be looking at a 100 per cent start to this league tenure.
READ NEXT:
Robin Koch's major Leeds United change perfectly timed for contract talks and Germany's Euro 2024
Andrea Radrizzani reveals Leeds United sale process amid Massimo Cellino admission
Leeds United FA Cup prize money confirmed after Whites suffer fifth-round exit
Chelsea's major issue can give Leeds United hope for Premier League clash
Javi Gracia is seeing Leeds United penny drop on problem Jesse Marsch identified on his way out
