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Tom Coley

Graham Potter gets £47m Chelsea transfer fail reminder amid 20-year-old Diego Costa opportunity

Graham Potter will have been a happy man to see Mason Mount and Kai Havertz get on the scoresheet as England and Germany played out a thriller at Wembley. England scored three, Germany scored three and Chelsea scored three.

Reece James was also brilliant on the night but that comes as standard, now. As for the other Chelsea bodies, Ben Chilwell was once again isolated with no minutes under Gareth Southgate and Raheem Sterling demonstrated why Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be so key this season.

Chelsea play what will be just their second Premier League match in four weeks at the weekend and it's Potter's first in charge. It won't feel like it, but there's a chance to get back-to-back wins in the league for the first time since March.

READ MORE: Chelsea news and transfers LIVE: All the latest news, rumours and gossip from Stamford Bridge

It's the start of a torturous month for Potter. He faces nine games in October and 13 before November 12 and the World Cup mid-season break. Hitting the ground at full steam will be key, and he'll need to rely on his full squad to help him out.

There are plenty of players he is yet to truly test out, Edouard Mendy has been injured, N'Golo Kante likewise, Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly were both dropped for the first match and Trevoh Chalobah might get a bigger role under the manager too.

Maybe the most important player will be Aubameyang, though. As Sterling demonstrated in a poor performance against Germany, he is not the answer every time, even if it often feels like it. The Englishman has scored three league goals and one in the Champions League, no other player has yet to score more than once for Chelsea this season and only Kai Havertz has made the scoresheet for the attackers.

In eight matches, Chelsea as a team have only scored nine goals, Sterling has nearly half of those. That's what he does, but when the forward isn't scoring - and he had a rare off-day at Wembley - the issues start to show. The 27-year-old only managed 39 touches in his 65 minutes. Of players to start the game, only Phil Foden and Harry Kane had less for Southgate's side.

It was part of a counter-attacking plan that could have worked for England, but Sterling's form in front of goal was missing. It's a harsh comparison to make considering the levels between them, but it would have been the perfect metaphor for Chelsea had their new talisman been on form, especially as an outgoing striker continued to struggle.

Timo Werner, often a gun for his country - 24 goals in 54 games is a strong return - had one of those games that Chelsea fans can remember oh too well. He was hooked at half-time after just 14 touches in 45 minutes, considerably the lowest of any starter, with Robin Gosens and Thomas Muller both getting more despite coming on with less than 25 minutes to play.

Within that he was offside when running in behind and skewed a tight chance wide of Nick Pope's goal. It wasn't a statement to make fans turn their opinions of him. Sterling undoubtedly offers more then Werner even when he isn't scoring or creating, but that's not why he was bought for £45 million this summer and Werner's performance is a reminder for Potter that even a player with 112 Premier League goals will have bad days.

When that happens he needs to be certain that Havertz, Aubameyang or even Armando Broja will be able to make up for Sterling's absence. Potter never got to manage Werner but his systematic and fundamental - ultimately unsuccessful - battle to impress in English football doesn't offer much evidence that the new manager would have been able to extract much more from him.

Now with Sterling, Broja and Aubameyang all new additions to the squad there is a chance to mould his own front line with players that all have different characteristics. Broja, for example, is a bullish and Diego Costa-type striker, Aubameyang plays on intuition and sharpness in the box, Sterling is a pure winger.

If Potter can make his attacking unit gel, then he may be able to banish memories of the £47 million spent on Werner after all.

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