Chelsea at Tottenham: 3 Blues Graham Potter must start

Chelsea travel to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium to face Antonio Conte’s Spurs as the Blues desperately look for three points. The Blues have been winless in February with their last win coming on 15th January against Crystal Palace. Pressure is piling on Graham Potter and he must deliver now.

CFC has signed eight additional players in the last transfer window, some of whom will arrive in the next summer. Potter’s Blues currently sit 10th in the league with no sure answer as to where the next win is coming from. Potter rested some players for the Southampton game, and many attributed the loss to that fact.

Potter, fans, players, and everyone else knows that the upcoming game is extremely important, and doubly so because of the situation the Blues are in. With many injury returnees including Wesley Fofana and Raheem Sterling, here are three players that must start against Antonio Conte’s men.

3 Chelsea players who must start vs Tottenham

Benoit Badiashile (No. 4) centerback, France

Chelsea has been putting up poor defensive numbers except goals conceded throughout the season, conceding 1.38 expected goals against (xGA) since Potter took over up until the game before Badiashile first played.

However since Benoit Badiashile came in, Chelsea has allowed a 0.92 xGA on average in the five games the Frenchman has played. In addition to this, Chelsea allowed 1.8 big chances per game across the 12 games Potter oversaw without Badiashile on the pitch, since the addition of the former Monaco man, Chelsea has allowed 0.6 big chances per game.

Badiashile has been a key part of Chelsea’s newfound defensive solidity, as Badiashile has brought some key improvements to Chelsea’s play. His passing is superb, leading all defenders in accuracy of long balls (65%) and averaging the most passes per game (78.6) as well as the highest percentage of complete passes of all Chelsea’s defenders (91.4%).