There was a period when Chelsea and Graham Potter weren't able to pick six of their starters from the team that beat Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday. In the XI that he selected for the biggest night of his career it is arguable that at least nine of them would make the best possible team when the squad is fully fit.
That is a massive contrast to the depths of darkness that the squad was in during the post-Christmas injury plague. 11 starters were ruled out in mid-January, they have slowly been welcomed back and the timing couldn't have been better.
"If you have no Reece James, no N'Golo Kante, no Wesley Fofana, no Ben Chilwell, no Loftus-Cheek, no Sterling – these players are important for us as well," Potter said after the 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
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"Tonight they had some players missing and that goes in our favour. I'm not going to complain about that at all." Potter has needed all the luck he can get. His side have hit the woodwork more times than they have the net in the past month. Chances have been fluffed, opportunities missed and points squandered.
In the game where that needed to change, it did. Not for the want of trying, though. Kai Havertz hit the post and also burried a brilliant goal before it was disallowed all in the time before Raheem Sterling's openers. The collective 'here we go again' from the Stamford Bridge crowd was effectively audible.
The luck did change though. Sterling's huge miss-kick allowed him a second shot at goal, Havertz's first penalty was struck against the post rather than inside it. Had one of several small margins gone against Chelsea, as Potter would be within his right to say things have done in the past couple of months, then the outcome might have been very different.
On top of that, Reece James' hamstring tweak wasn't serious, he was fit to play after being rested. Having injured himself within 60 minutes of his return in December this can be considered fortunate. Wesley Fofana is back too, having missed all the action between the start of October and the middle of February, the timing couldn't have been better.
Kalidou Koulibaly admitted when he joined the club that there would be an adaption period to the pace of the league. At 31 he was written off quickly, now he is coming into his best patch of form in London and he chose the best time to do it.
Here are three players central to the win at SW6 that sees the Blues into the quarter-finals. Kante, as mentioned by Potter, hasn't played under the head coach yet. He's getting there and will likely be in contention for the last eight ties in just over one month. As a Champions League knockout specialist this is quite the turnaround.
Raheem Sterling has looked sharp since his own lay-off from injury, he was purchased to be the difference on occasions such as these. These were all points that Potter raised during his run of bad form. That isn't totally behind him yet, there is still a way to go beyond two wins in four four days, but his squad has never been in better shape.
When the results aren't going the right way then bad luck doesn't cut it, but when wins are on the board it is more acceptable to point just how tough things had become. Potter's squad was stretched, even with its size, beyond reasonable expectation. Now the tide is flowing his way and the magic eight ball has all the right answers.
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