Graham Potter’s tactical variety gives Chelsea’s stuttering season new lease of life

Almost every Chelsea player has stepped up in Graham Potter’s early tenure and another victory over AC Milan underlined a quietly impressive start by the new manager

Graham Potter directs from the touchline at the San Siro (Reuters)

It was supposed to be much harder than this. Graham Potter even admitted as much when he spoke about how difficult the Champions League campaign would be after the 1-1 draw with Salzburg. It’s actually only a week since Chelsea were bottom of the group.

So much has changed. They’re now top, having beaten Milan in successive games, but it’s not just that. It forms part of a longer undefeated run for Potter since taking over, with the latest 2-0 victory his fourth successive win.

Given Potter is not the most effusive speaker, and isn’t necessarily the most quotable coach, you could almost say this is the definition of quietly going about a good job.

Chelsea’s improvement has been a consequence of any grand motivational influence, bombastic decisions or big moments. It’s just progressive work on the training ground.

Potter did go into the difference in the group now, compared to that very first match.

“The Salzburg game was a difficult game for lots of reasons,” he said. “It wasn’t the best start in Zagreb and lots of things changing behind the scenes, then Her Majesty passes away and then we have a Champions League game and we didn’t know the players and they didn’t know us.

"It’s a process of trying to get to know them. We had a bit of time away because of the international break but we just worked hard behind the scenes in emphasising the importance of the group, emphasising the importance of the team and how we act.

“The important thing is the quicker you get to know the players the quicker you can build trust and understand them the better. But it is down to the guys, the players.”

If this group is now starting to know what Potter and his staff are about, it is very difficult for opposition sides to know how to prepare against them.

This has perhaps been the stand-out element of the 47-year-old’s time in charge. Chelsea have a high degree of tactical variety. They play a completely different system in almost every game. If that obviously reflects Potter’s quality as a pure coach, it also speaks to some subtly good general management.

By rotating his squad, the Chelsea manager has kept the whole dressing room engaged. It has been clever from the perspective of dressing-room politics, especially as one of the perceptions has been that a group of high achievers may be ready to turn on a coach with such a CV as soon as things go wrong. Potter is building up trust, and giving himself the space to show his quality.

Chelsea’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates scoring the second in Milan (Chelsea FC/Getty)

It means there is a multiplying effect, the tactics proving effective, but also feeding into the good spirit, and the two fortifying each other.

The end result is more than just clever formations, or the sort of thing those more invested in the technical minutiae of the game might be into. It is some really good football. Chelsea’s second goal against Milan was a vision of what the team can become, as well as an illustration of what Potter’s approach always could be with better attackers. This is what he was reaching towards at Brighton.

Chelsea sliced Milan open with an excellent angled move, a series of slick passes culminating in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang sliding the ball into the net. That Mason Mount set it up was all the more fitting given how such a tactical player has revelled under a highly tactical coach. It was also inevitable such a goal came down the right, because Reece James is causing such problems down that side. The reality, however, is that almost every Chelsea player has stepped up.

The system currently means they don’t miss N’Golo Kante in the same way. Potter is able to come up with multiple different tactical options.

There are much more difficult tests to come, of course.

But for a coach to come from the low base of Chelsea’s start to the season, and produce form and performances like this, deserves genuine credit. It is quietly impressive, although the noise will only grow if this continues.