Tottenham 2-0 Chelsea: lessons learned for the Blues

The substitutions

While it was undoubtedly good to see Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang back on the bench again for Sunday’s game against Spurs, his inclusion, coupled with Potter’s decision to only introduce him into the game with 10 minutes left on the clock raises even more questions.

Firstly, having only scored one goal in the whole of February, why did Potter choose to leave Aubameyang, a player revered for his uncanny ability to find the back of the net, out of the squad until now? With Kai Havertz struggling so badly for form, Potter went so far as to start a 20-year-old David Datro Fofana against Southampton last week rather than to give the Gabonese striker a chance to lead the line. At the time, it was mentioned that the statistics by the backroom team indicated that Fofana was a better fit for the team. While that in itself is not an issue, what could possibly have changed over the course of a week so as to prompt Aubameyang’s sudden inclusion? Decisions like this are difficult to fathom, and perhaps alludes to uncertainty even at a backroom level.

Secondly, why, with the team so desperate for a goal against Spurs, did Potter only decide to bring on Aubameyang and Mykhailo Mudryk with barely any time left to play? Against Spurs, Chelsea’s frontline laboured for last parts of the game to create anything of significance. It is thus difficult to understand the manager’s decision to withhold reinforcements until that late into the game.

These questions lead into a larger point, that is that Potter has generally struggled to influence games during the matches itself. When considering that the team generally starts to fade early on into the second half, making effective substitutions becomes even more crucial in influencing the flow and tempo of the game. Thus far, Potter’s substitutions have proven ineffectual, and serves as yet another potential area of improvement for the Englishman.