Did Chelsea make a mistake by sacking Graham Potter now?

Chelsea's English head coach Graham Potter (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
Chelsea's English head coach Graham Potter (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Graham Potter, Manager of Chelsea (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) /

The second sign was how fast the team were falling down the table. CFC were fifth when Potter walked through the door on his way in where the Blues had gathered 10 points from 6 games (1.67 points per game), which was considered poor at the time. Potter was only able to gather 28 points from the next 22 league games (1.27). It gets worse as there were no signs things would get better. The underlying numbers showed that they were exactly where they were expected to be based on their performances. Potter leaves with Chels‘ in 11th place.

The underlying numbers showed the side were 11th for points scored since Potter took over, joint 12th for games won, 16th for goals scored, 4th for goals conceded, 9th for xG and 6th for xGA. The goals against and xGA numbers look much better than everything else, but those numbers in and of themselves weren’t impressive numbers. Under Potter’s reign, the west London club averaged 1.4 xG across the 22 league games he managed, and 1.2 xGA on average in that time. That is alarmingly poor, especially when you considered that his 2021/22 Brighton side did very similar numbers (1.3 xG, 1.24 xGA) across 38 games.

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With just these few things highlighted, it’s clear that Boehly in fact did make a mistake. Yet it wasn’t in sacking him at the time he did, it was in keeping the Englishman on as long as he did.