‘It was a positive performance’: Graham Potter explains latest Chelsea setback

Graham Potter watches on as Aston Villa defeat Chelsea (Action Images via Reuters)

Graham Potter suffered yet another setback in his tenure as Chelsea manager when his time were beaten 2-0 at home by Aston Villa on Saturday evening but believes his team put in a ‘positive performance’.

A defensive mistake from Marc Cucurella saw him nod the ball onto the in-form Villa striker, Ollie Watkins, who nestled home a fine finish to send Villa ahead in the first half.

The Blues responded well but lacked a clinical edge in front of goal with the forward line of Kai Havertz, Joao Felix and Mykhailo Mudryk unable to make inroads into the Villa defence.

Ben Chilwell impressed and had a goal disallowed just before half-time but a brilliant strike from John McGinn saw Villa extend their lead after the break leaving Potter’s men shocked at the full-time whistle.

“We have to do better,” said the Chelsea boss in his post-match interview, “There are a lot of good things in the game, attacking entries, shots, the stats, it’s a positive performance, in terms of the scoreline it’s not.

“We’re really disappointed. It can happen, it’s football, the boys gave everything, they tried, they attacked.

“You need to defend better. I’m responsible for that. We need to look at that and do better. It’s a great strike from John McGinn. If you look at the stats from the game, there’s a lot there for us. We have to accept it and do better.

“We wanted to win our home game here, there was a positivity there. It wasn’t a lack of effort. We need to manage moments better. The score tells a story.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’re disappointed, everybody is. We have a fantastic game on Tuesday night to put it right.”

Potter also took responsibility for the defeat as the odds on him becoming the next Premier League manager to be sacked slashed from 11/1 to 10/3.

He added: “Defensively we’ve left ourselves too open but again if you look at the stats of the game we had chances ourselves, we had one-v-ones, but the most important thing, putting the ball into the net, we were second-best.

“I don’t like to blame anybody, I have to take responsibility. We are a team, we have to stay together, we are together. We win or lose together.

“We will recover and we will prepare for the next game. We need to respond, that’s clear. But we look forward to it.”