When you have the backing that Graham Potter has at Chelsea, you don’t need to blame referees.
With the quality at Potter’s disposal you don’t need to deflect attention away from your false starts. So when the Blues boss leads his team out for a first-ever European meeting with Dortmund on Wednesday night, he’ll stay true to his principles and keep his head while all about him are losing theirs.
Had Potter angrily pointed the finger at referee Craig Pawson or the VAR for not awarding a penalty when West Ham ’s Thomas Soucek's blatantly handled in the box, there’d have been more than a few suggestions that the Blues boss was struggling to cope.
It would have been framed as Potter under pressure with just two wins from his last 12 in all competitions, unable to cope with the step up from Brighton.
Would his players really have been galvanised by a fiery tirade as one or two ex-pros have suggested? Or would they too have had their doubts that Potter could cut it in the top six?
Because let’s not kid ourselves, Potter is still patronised in some quarters because he doesn’t have the stardust of the A-listers such as Mourinho or Tuchel.
Yet the truth is, the Blues have ripped up a team of underachievers mid-season and replaced them with a clutch of rising stars whose best years are yet to come.
It is remarkable that even seasoned football watchers are asking why you can’t just throw eleven players together and expect it to work.
Behind the scenes at Chelsea there is far more realism - especially in the absence of a recognised striker. The club has invested in a group of young talents they expect to grow together into a formidable outfit. It will take time.
Yes, it is a surprise that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was left out of the Champions League squad when Chelsea have failed to score in four of their last seven. In addition, the west Londoners have only scored more than one goal in a game just once since November.
But if Aubameyang has been left too disillusioned to convince Chelsea that they might have made a mistake then Potter can only work with what he has.
Dortmund, winners of their last six in all competitions - scoring 17 goals - will be tough opponents. Their momentum has carried them into the German Cup quarter-finals and, with Jude Bellingham at their epicentre, they are very much a settled team. The opposite, if you will, to Potter’s Chelsea.
Whatever the result at the Signal Iduna Park, Chelsea owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are looking at the long term. He isn’t under pressure and won’t be unless something goes dramatically wrong.
At Brighton Potter routinely polished jewels just like the ones he now has at Stamford Bridge. So there is faith and confidence upstairs that his patient approach will pay dividends. There really is no need for him to panic and point the finger at referees.
