If Chelsea hoped that there might be an immediate bounce once Graham Potter had replaced Thomas Tuchel as manager, it was left disappointed. A slightly featureless 1–1 draw at home to Red Bull Salzburg leaves Chelsea at the bottom of its Champions League group after two games, and, with two matches against AC Milan still to come, facing the serious possibility of missing the knockout stage. Perhaps of more concern though, was that Wednesday’s was a performance just as disjointed as those of the past few weeks.
It would obviously be absurd to judge Potter after just one game—especially one during an abnormal week for the English game following Queen Elizabeth II’s death—but his side suffered the same issue as Tuchel’s often had, which was to enjoy a level of domination of midfield without much in the way of penetration in the final third. Here, at least, there was a bona fide center forward, the one brought in at Tuchel’s behest (although he never got to start him), in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Not surprisingly, he looked rusty.
Kai Havertz was deployed behind him, which is surely his best position, with Mason Mount on the right and Raheem Sterling, who scored Chelsea’s only goal on a neat curling finish, on the left. But Sterling spent much of the game chasing back, operating almost as a wingback. He did not look especially thrilled to be replaced six minutes from time by Christian Pulisic and perhaps felt his attacking incursions beyond the striker had been needlessly limited. There is, it’s fair to say, work to be done.
