Chelsea head coach Graham Potter says he is going through the most challenging period of his managerial career as he prepares his squad to take on Nottingham Forest this weekend.
The Reds, who sit second from bottom in the Premier League table, host the West London outfit at the City Ground this Sunday with kick-off set for 4.30pm. It's the first top-flight meeting between the two clubs for over 23 years, during which time Forest have largely struggled in the two tiers below while Chelsea became a hyper-successful club.
Potter's side, however, are in worse form than Forest, having won just one of their last seven league games. The 47-year-old says the six-week break from competitive action while the World Cup took place has not helped their cause.
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“It’s been a really tough period, as challenging as there has been in my time as a coach,” Potter told football.london. “But you know, we’re Chelsea and people don’t want to hear those reasons, stroke excuses. You’ve got to get on with it and try your best to find the answers.
"The break hasn’t been a positive one for us and I could’ve made lots of excuses had the result [against Bournemouth] not gone our way because we had four [senior] players for the first two weeks, then players dripping back in and the break people think we have to work with the players isn’t there. But you can’t make those excuses, you just have to win."
Chelsea won on their return by beating the Cherries 3-0, but suffered a big blow as Reece James re-injured himself 50 minutes into the game and looks set to spend another spell on the sidelines. With N'Golo Kante and Wesley Fofana also experiencing setbacks during their respective recoveries from injury, Potter was asked whether the club were victims of bad luck.
“There is a little bit of bad luck but I don’t think you should throw it to something you can’t do anything about,” Potter said. “There is an element of luck, of course, but then there are other things that happen. But that is for us to try to learn from and get better with.
“It’s been a challenging season and I don’t know how pre-season was because I wasn’t here. I can’t comment on that. Sometimes you have these situations; Liverpool had one earlier in the season.
"So it can happen, especially when you are playing so many games in a short space of time. But without knowing the full extent of pre-season, it’s hard for me to comment.”
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