The Potter era began at Chelsea with a 1-1 draw with Red Bull Salzburg, a glimpse of the kind of football the 47-year-old aims to deliver at Stamford Bridge. His predecessor Thomas Tuchel's debut was characterized by a 0-0 draw against Wolves, in which the Blues dominated the ball with a back three, recording 78.9% possession on the night. In Potter's three full seasons at Brighton, his team averaged 51.7%, 50.7% and 54.3% possession, so it's no surprise that armed with better players here, Chelsea have increased that number to 70.8%. However, one thing Touchell's Chelsea and Potter's Brighton had in common was wastefulness in front of goal. The Blues wasted a number of chances in the 90 minutes when Armando Broja blazed over the crossbar in injury time. At least they scored, but the defensive frailty that had caused so much damage to Tuchel's Chelsea over time reappeared when Thiago Silva's interception allowed Junior Adamu to beat Junior Adamu and Noah Okafor to equalise.
Perhaps the most interesting individual deployment of Potter's 3-5-2 shape was his use of Sterling as a left wing-back.
In truth, Sterling was usually higher up the pitch and he often resembled a wide forward, and it would have delighted Potter that the goal came from an overload in that position, Mason Mount's right-wing cross finding Pierre-Emerick. Aubameyang to Sterling, who used his time well and curled a shot into the far corner. Sterling was beginning to find his feet towards the end of Touchell's time in charge -- scoring three times in his last four games and he was a constant threat here six minutes from time.The negatives of Sterling playing that role were shown in Salzburg's draw when Sterling and left-sided centre-back Mark Cucurella were caught. Pulisic played a role as a substitute in all seven matches before Tuchel's departure. A reduced role was one of the reasons he expressed interest in a move away from the club in the summer transfer window, refusing to consider the club's hierarchy. Potter's arrival marks a fresh start for the entire squad, but Pulisic found he had limited time to make an impact, introducing Chelsea's final change for Sterling with just six minutes remaining. Pulisic had just 11 touches, completing eight of nine passes, but had a hard time recovering the cause late. The good news for the US Men's National Team international is that he's on the pitch. The bad news is his wait to start a match at club level in October, less than two months before the start of the World Cup. Chelsea manager Graham Potter said of the result: "We're disappointed with the result. The lads gave it their all. We scored a great goal but fell a little short in the second half, but their goalkeeper made some good saves. We have to dust ourselves off. The personality and performance was good and we'll improve. The goal was to get a good result at once." Potter on whether the players need time to bond with him: "I'm very positive about the players and their reaction and their attitude. They're intelligent. They're good players, great players. They work hard for each other. There's a good spirit in the group and they're disappointed because they don't get the results they want, that's normal, you You can feel that frustration, you can feel that frustration, but it's my job to help them. Try to get the results that we all want, that they want. Today we didn't have a great start in terms of points, but in terms of how we worked on the pitch as a group, a lot of positives."
Potter on the team's transition to takeover: "It hasn't been easy for the boys, they've responded well to us over the last few days and it's a point we need to take and improve. The attitude is fantastic. , no complaints apart from the fact we didn't take the three points." Just over 100 days at the helm of Chelsea, we've heard more from Todd Boehly than we've heard from Roman Abramovich in almost two decades. From a fan's perspective, it doesn't really matter in the long run. As long as the club is doing well and winning, most can do without communication from the owner, which is why most Chelsea supporters love Abramovich and most United fans hate the Glazers, the silent owners of Manchester United. The problem for Boehly, who heads the investment consortium that bought Chelsea for nearly $3 billion in the summer, is that the club is not doing well. To the natural anxiety of a new owner after 20 years of stability and success, you sack manager Thomas Tuchel, especially after a summer of heavy investment and a lackluster start to the campaign, so naturally, every word will be scrutinised. So when Boehly sat down Tuesday with Anthony Scaramucci, the same guy who was White House communications director for 10 days and who famously explained the difference between Steve Bannon and Steve Bannon in a half-hour chat, the world was watching. Inevitably, some will focus on Boehly's mistakes, malaprops, and general things that rub seasoned fans the wrong way. In the grand scheme of things, I'd be remiss not to note them, even though they're not as relevant to the main takeaway. For me, the point is that Bohli's group offers nothing new.
Boehly said each club in the Premier League receives "a few hundred million north" (he did not specify pounds or dollars) a year, which is not entirely true. Last season, top earners Manchester City received £164m ($190m) and bottom club Norwich City £98.6m ($113.8m). Let's get it wrong when clubs are off more than 100% of what they actually earn from broadcasting, and he might be a big picture guy. And it prevents the "tanking" of clubs with nothing to play for to play a meaningless string of relegations in European soccer that separates him from his broader and more interesting U.S. sport. Games. (In case you were wondering, he didn't go so far as to suggest that promotion-relegation be introduced into baseball, where he is part owner of the LA Dodgers.) As I see it, the more relevant takeaways relate to his sense of what innovation and better coaching means for the Premier League and Chelsea. First, when you start a sentence by saying "Hopefully the Premier League learns a lesson from American sports", nothing good comes of it. An indication of what he meant, American sports are good at monetizing fan experiences, and European soccer has something to learn from that.
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