Today a new week kicked off in the premier league. And the headline of the night is Brighton beating Chelsea by 4 goals to 1. Pretty unbelievable. Well, there are some things that are guilty of making this happen. And I would want to dissect what actually went wrong with Chelsea, and what's going on with Graham Potter. All the while, full credit to Brighton for playing their A game. Always sharp throughout the 90. And perfectly countering Chelsea's approach and taking chances as they arrive.
So Graham Potter although hasn't ever managed a big club before, he still became famous because of what he did with Brighton. Especially since last season Brighton has been playing electric football. New owners of Chelsea had seen him to his magic. And brought him in. First thing out of the gate, Potter himself is overwhelmed by being appointed by the European household name. You would see it plain as day in the pressers. The pressure of managing a big club got into him from day 1. All that aside, Potter is a very flexible manager. In Brighton we have seen him playing deeper players up front, forward players a bit back, and a dozen other changes in positions. He's doing the same thing here too. Playing Pulisic and Sterling in wingback positions, while benching an in form Chilwell or Shifting Cucurella to center back is something I wouldn't understand.
Loftus Cheek has been playing right wingback for the better part of a year now. And performing well too. Potter shifted him to midfield. Gallagher is a box to box midfielder. Asking him to play as a playmaker doesn't sit right. Finally up front. Your first choice striker isn't in form? Fine, play your second choice striker. But Potter opted play a playmaker in the striker position. Although Havertz scored one but his movements would've been more welcome in a deeper role. Now if you play two forward players and ask them of defensive duties, they are bound to fail. Brighton has scored one goal in this manner. If there was a genuine wingback, that goal might not have happened. Now, moving on to the individual mistakes. Today many saw Thiago Silva running back and heading a ball over the bar and saving a goal. That chance was created by a Chelsea player who put in a wrong pass. Would you be able to tell who that player was? It was Silva himself. He made amends for the first one but when he put in a second wrong pass, Chelsea were punished. That's goal number 1. Two and three were own goals too. The concentration among Chelsea players were not to be seen on the pitch today. Let alone playing according to the tactics. Because playing players out of position isn't always the answer.
Potter isn't like the other English managers who don't have a good training regime, nor are flamboyant in tactics. Potter is smarter than them. The general expectation is that he would learn from his mistakes. Although the Chelsea record says otherwise. They face Arsenal next, if all goes well then Arsenal will have a comfortable win.
