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Football London
Football London
Sport
Laurie Martin

Former Chelsea assistant praises Graham Potter's 'top-drawer' selections ahead of busy schedule

Eyebrows were raised when Chelsea announced their team to face Wolves on Saturday. Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Raheem Sterling and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were all benched, while Thiago Silva was left out of the squad entirely.

It meant starts for the likes of Trevoh Chalobah, Conor Gallagher and Christian Pulisic, with Armando Broja and Carney Chukwuemeka used from the bench. If it had gone wrong, Potter would have faced huge criticism, but his heavily rotated ran-out comprehensive 3-0 winners over Wolves.

On his decision to make seven changes, Potter said: "It's a good group here. We can't succeed with just eleven players, and I don't think it's right to just keep eleven going until they fall down, get injured and then we play the next ones. That is not good for the group dynamic."

READ MORE: What Todd Boehly was spotted doing after Chelsea's win over Wolves

No doubt that Potter had an eye on tomorrow's huge clash against AC Milan in the Champions League, where a win would see the Blues take a huge step towards qualifying from their group. The fact that he made so many changes shows that, despite its early days in the Stamford Bridge dugout, Potter has a huge amount of trust in all his players.

His trust in his players would only have increased after Saturday's win, with several players impressing with their performances after coming into the team. Former Blues midfielder Jody Morris has praised Potter for the way he's used his squad since being appointed.

"They had a really tough game against Crystal Palace, and they managed to get through that, which in a way, was the beginning of the theme because someone [Gallagher] came off the bench to score the winner," Morris told Sky Sports News.

"You look at the two teams he's selected since, against Milan, where they absolutely cruised to victory. He was able to rest a few and chose a few different players who perhaps people weren't expecting.

"He did it again at the weekend, and the level of performance in both games was top-drawer while being able to rotate players, rest players and also get a closer look at players in certain positions.

"Everybody seems to be chipping in. We had players coming off the bench in both games scoring goals and performing well."

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