Graham Potter explains why he deserves patience at Chelsea

Chelsea manager Graham Potter has hit back at the critics already calling for his head, pointing to the time it took Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta to become successful at Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal respectively.

Potter was poached from Brighton following the shock dismissal of Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge in September. He enjoyed early success in the Champions League group stage, but Chelsea have had a difficult time of it more recently, winning only two of their last six games.

That poor run included three successive defeats going into the World Cup break.

The surface optics are bad considering the Blues spent a world record £278m in a single transfer window during the summer and yet are 10th in the Premier League. They also face a tough task of progressing in the FA Cup, facing a Manchester City they already lost to only a few days ago.

But with so many changes in recent months, both on and off the pitch, Chelsea is a rebuilding job and Potter appears confident that the hierarchy will be patient enough to see some fruit.

“The owners are billionaires so they’re quite smart. Smarter than me, that’s for sure. So they understand the challenges that we have and the direction we want to go in,” he said.

“I’ve been here four months and five, six weeks of that have been lost to international football.

“I think Pep was [at Manchester City] a year before they won anything, and then obviously Mikel and Jurgen took a bit of time. But obviously it’s maybe different for me, for some reason. But I don’t put a timescale on it. I know the responsibility we have here.”

Potter landed the Chelsea job because of his record at Brighton and so still has plenty of confidence in his own abilities to make a success of it in due course.

“I know that I am capable, and I know the quality that I have and I have the full support of certainly the owners, the players and the staff here. There’s nothing you can do, but certainly I’m not here to convince anybody. I’m here to do my I work and then if that convinces then that’s fine.“