Should Potter be sacked if Chelsea lose this game?

Chelsea currently sits in underwhelming tenth place, nine points behind Manchester United and Newcastle United in fourth place respectively. The Blues play Fulham in a London derby that was already going to be difficult, but now has the added pressure of being a must win game because of the situation Graham Potter’s men find themselves in.

CFC sacked Thomas Tuchel a week after the summer transfer window closed, and since then, Potter has picked up 15 points in 11 games, winning four and drawing three games. The four loses were against Brighton & Hove Albion, Newcastle, Arsenal and Manchester City. The last three aren’t particularly surprising, but the Brighton loss and the manner of it stood out because they hadn’t won a match in six.

Potter has not had it easy since becoming boss. He had a one week break before his first game as Chelsea head coach, and then had a two-week break after that, presiding over his first league game after weeks of being appointed. Usually three weeks with your players undisturbed is invaluable for any manager, talk less of a new manager. This seemed to be the case, as he won his first three league games and picked up 11 points from his first five games. It has long since fallen apart though.

Time to train his players has been in short supply for most managers this season as they were required to play a certain number of games before the winter World Cup break, meaning that almost every team was playing at least two matches in a seven-day period and teams in European competitions played more games in the same period often.

Injuries haven’t helped the Englishman either, as his players had been dropping like flies even before the World Cup. Reece James and Wesley Fofana got long term injuries before the World Cup, with Ben Chilwell also getting injured and needing surgery. James and Fofana seemed to be recovering well in the dying weeks of the World Cup, but Fofana got injured again before the World Cup break was over, and James couldn’t play more than 54 minutes in his first game back from injury, and has been out since then.