Chelsea boss Graham Potter has explained his reasoning behind restricting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to a brief cameo against Brentford last night.
The former Arsenal captain got less than 10 minutes off the bench in Wednesday night’s west London derby clash, despite an entertaining and hard-fought encounter being locked in stalemate.
Some fans were puzzled as to why Aubameyang, who has netted three times since arriving from Barcelona in a £12million transfer on summer deadline day, was not introduced earlier as Chelsea chased in vain for the elusive goal that would have secured a sixth successive victory across all competitions.
However, Potter explained that he was merely being careful with the player’s load management amid a hectic fixture list before the mid-season World Cup break, while he also wanted to offer a chance for Kai Havertz to lead the line instead.
“Yeah, of course, but I know the reasons why,” Potter told reporters when asked if he was tempted to introduce Aubameyang off the bench sooner. “Again, it’s the load of him, he’s played a lot, and it gives the chance for Kai to score and play, and we were close with that. Yeah, I understand the question.”
Despite Chelsea’s continued defensive prowess as they registered a fifth consecutive clean sheet, their obvious lack of cutting edge at the Brentford Community Stadium will have posed some concern.
The Blues looked notably short on goalscoring prowess after the early substitution of an ill Conor Gallagher and Potter admitted it remains an area for improvement.
“Well, I always look at the team and try to get the team functioning better rather than zooming into individuals. I understand the question, but I would rather look at the team and try and help the team attack better,” he said when asked if Chelsea needed one or two players with more goals in them.
“It’s not easy against Brentford because if you don’t attack well, quickly, it’s in your backline, and you have to control a mess which is difficult to do because they’ve got physicality, and that’s how they make the came unstable. We were close with Mase [Mount], close with Kai, but we can improve in that area.”
