Graham Potter has bypassed his early obstacles as Chelsea manager so far, but like an episode of TotalWipeout, they just keep coming. There truly isn't much time to look back upon beating AC Milan 3-0 as Wolves come right around the corner.
This allows Potter to keep the momentum going, especially now he has won back-to-back games, and helps to maintain the team feeling and understanding. With 11 matches still to go until the break for the World Cup, there is plenty of football to be played.
Key to getting through the biggest test over this sustained period will be managing his squad, and with injuries to Wesley Fofana, Edouard Mendy and Marc Cucurella already, as well as no return for N'Golo Kante, Potter has dodged the early bullets.
READ MORE: Every word Graham Potter said on Fofana, Kante, Cucurella, Chalobah, Costa and Chelsea vs Wolves
He might have channel his inner Keanu Reeves as Neo if he wants to get away clean from the next onslaught of challenges that will pop up though. So far Potter has been able to keep his Chelsea team relatively similar with only small adjustments, when that changes will demonstrate the heights of the job in hand.
Keeping such a large group of players happy is no mean feat, especially when considering that Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech, two wantaway stars from the summer, are once again on the periphery. Having caused Tuchel selection headaches, with the German using them sporadically before returning to trust them in his final weeks, Potter has inherited two unhappy players.
Both Ziyech and Pulisic would have prefered to leave over the summer and will look to depart once more with January not coming soon enough. Potter may well have some sympathy for his former boss. He has to manage the players and offer them enough chance to impress but also do that without putting his sides' performances at risk.
The Moroccan is yet to play in a winning team yet this season and has under 200 minutes for the campaign. He has lost in four of the last 10 games where he has gotten onto the field. Not that this is fair to blame on him, but his struggles went hand in hand with Tuchel and Chelsea's slide.
Now it's down to Potter and he has put early trust in Mason Mount, Kai Havertz and Raheem Sterling, along with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ziyech has no way in for now, and former Netherlands legend Marco van Basten thinks it's time for him to leave England.
"There is another transfer window coming up," Van Basten told Ziggo Sport. "It is sad and a shame. Ziyech is a great player. We have to see someone like that, we watch TV for such a player and we come to the stadium. It is a pity for the whole of football that he is on the bench. If these kinds of players do not get minutes, it is not good for football."
The 29-year-old was one of the most entertaining players to watch during his time in Holland, scoring 79 and assisting 97 in 216 appearances. He has struggled due to a number of reasons in England and now, just under three years since agreeing to join Chelsea in February 2020, he has yet to truly win over a Chelsea manager.
Ajax themselves were interested in the player but Van Basten believes the problem is bigger than that. "I don’t know but there is another problem. There should actually be a rule that clubs can only have a certain number of players.
"So they [Chelsea] have way too many and that actually makes football less interesting. A player like Ziyech could just play at another club and entertain the fans. Soon there will be teams that have 35 players, five or six of whom never play. They could excel at other clubs.
"All competitions must be reduced to eighteen clubs. Then you play a few fewer matches. Then you can’t use more than, say, 26 players during the season. You see that it is possible. At Real Madrid, for example. They just have a normal selection and just eighteen to twenty players who always play. So in principle that should be possible."
Ziyech, having been an unused substitute in two of Potter's three matches so far, isn't expected to be involved from the start against Wolves and must once again prove his worth to a new manager.
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