And just like that, there’s calm. For a perfect example of not judging a book by its cover – and, in this case, not forging your opinions based purely on results – have a look at Borussia Dortmund’s start to 2023. Statistically it’s been perfect but as with so many other trajectories BVB have mapped in the past, it hasn’t been a straight line.
Three weeks ago we might have expected their Champions League last-16 tie against Chelsea, which begins with at Signal Iduna Park on Wednesday, to be two well-heeled bald men scrapping over a comb. Yet if Graham Potter might need to draw consistent results from the mass of expensive talent assembled in the January transfer window, there are no such clouds darkening the Westfalen sky. Stability has always been what Edin Terzic has sough and now he seems to be finding it. Saturday’s hard-fought victory at Werder Bremen was a sixth win out of six since German football resumed following the World Cup.
