With a magical stroke of Kai Havertz’s left boot, a key task has already been ticked off for Graham Potter at Chelsea. A place in the knockout stages of the Champions League has been secured with a game to spare following a thrilling 2-1 win at RB Salzburg which also saw Chelsea produce their best attacking performance of Potter’s reign. The quality of the goals from Havertz and, in the first half, Mateo Kovacic stood out among a number of slick team moves, while Chelsea having to survive a few scares at the other end added to an impressive night overall as they made sure of their progress.
It has been quite the six weeks for Potter, one that got even better after full-time as results went Chelsea’s way and top spot in Group E was confirmed ahead of the final round of fixtures. Just last month, Potter took charge of Chelsea for the first time against Salzburg, only for a 1-1 draw against the Austrian champions to leave them bottom of the group and facing an awkward European campaign. In Chelsea’s previous two draws against Brentford and Manchester United, questions were beginning to be asked of an attack that looked short of ideas, only for an empathic response to be delivered here.
