Graham Potter has been described as a ‘slow burner’ of a coach who will effect change but only after a period of players adjusting to his methods.
That was certainly the case at Brighton, although time is a luxury only enjoyed by the mid-table clubs when it comes to the Premier League.
Chelsea, meanwhile, seem to regard Potter as their ‘project’ manager. Thomas Tuchel was sacked for allegedly not sharing the vision of owner Todd Boehly, whatever that might have been. A relentless quest to sign every player under the sun to an eight-year contract or something, presumably.
The Blues owners are said to have been inspired by Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, who was given the time needed to rebuild the falling Gunners. That is the official line, at least.
Unofficially, of course, Chelsea have been sounding out other potential coaches, including Mauricio Pochettino, which 90min revealed this week.
But how precarious is the situation for Potter? Eight head coaches have already been sacked in the Premier League this season, so how does his Chelsea record compare to theirs?
Graham Potter Chelsea performance by win percentage
The obvious caveat here is that, Potter’s predecessor Tuchel aside, everyone who has been sacked in the Premier League so far this season have done so due to relegation fears.
Chelsea have much loftier expectations than mere survival - so the bar for success is much higher too - and the fact Potter is even in the same ballpark as the sacked Premier League managers this season is testament to his failure so far.
And he is very much in that ballpark as well. He is performing at a comparable level, that is to say with a win-percentage of sub-30%.
* Statistics accurate as of 21/02/23
Graham Potter Chelsea performance by points-per-game
Winning is not everything, of course. It’s all about points in the Premier League and draws are important as well.
For clubs fighting relegation, a points-per-game of 1.00 is the magic number as the days of needing 40 points to survive are a generally a thing of the past.
Again, Chelsea should be nowhere near that. For context, Liverpool, who are in eighth position and are widely considered to be having an unacceptably poor season, are chugging along at 1.52ppg this season.
That is comparable to what West Ham did last season and is generally around 15 points short of the top four pace (1.85ppg approx.) that Chelsea should be targeting.
Again, Potter is far too close to the relegation battlers in terms of points-per-game here, which asks the obvious question of how long Chelsea can persist here.
League table since Graham Potter took over at Chelsea
Chelsea were in sixth position in the table when Potter took over from Thomas Tuchel, although the season was only six games old.
At that time, Potter had to step down the league table from fourth placed Brighton to take over at Stamford Bridge.
We will probably only get a true sense of how he is performing by looking at a Premier League table from the day he arrived, and it’s grim reading for Chelsea fans.
So, to put it into context, since Graham Potter was appointed at Chelsea, they have only been four points better than Everton in the Premier League. Not pretty reading for a team who have spent an extradordinary amount of money on new players...
Source : 90min