Graham Potter's unprecedented start to life as Chelsea manager will continue, finally, as he watches his team face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park tomorrow (Saturday). For Potter the irony will be that as he was made Chelsea boss his Brighton team would have had their own derby match against Palace to prepare for.
As it happens, Palace vs Brighton was cancelled and so were Potter's first two Chelsea league games as well. The waiting is over though and Potter's attention will be fully turned to getting a positive result from the match.
Until the busy October period gets going though there will remain a sense of nervous uncertainty around the 47-year-old. Although nothing will be proved for sure in this period, a good start before the World Cup disrupts the campaign would help to ease any tensions around Stamford Bridge.
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That would also come with Champions League progress, but Paul Merson is sorry for the former Brighton boss despite the enormous chance he has been given at Chelsea.
Speaking ahead of the match, Merson said, "I feel for Graham Potter - he's had no one at the club for the past few weeks, and he now has very little time to make the team play the way he wants them to play. The games are going to come thick and fast, and then we'll have the World Cup."
Potter himself has already dampened the risky aspect of taking the job, adding in his first press-conference, "Risks, well, if you walk across the road outside the stadium, there is a risk. That is what life is; nobody knows what is going to happen in the future.
"I left England when I was 30 years old, and I went to a club that had sacked the manager every year for the previous five years. It was the fourth tier of Swedish football, and I left a secure job, my wife's business, for an opportunity."
Potter's opportunities will now see him in charge of some of the best players in the league, Champions League and World Cup winners, all-time greats in Thiago Silva and promising ones in Wesley Fofana.
Merson - writing in his column for Sportskeeda - wonders if the new boss may have issues with the backline having not brought them in himself though, saying, "He didn't bring in Fofana and Koulibaly, however, and that's a problem - how much does he rate them? This is a dodgy game, but I'm going to go with a Chelsea victory.”
Former Blues defender William Gallas sees it a different way though and has seen Potter's direction, believing there is more to be gained from Fofana playing under Potter and with Silva. Speaking to Genting Casino, via Sportsbible, Gallas said: “For example Fofana, he has a great opportunity to learn a lot from Thiago Silva.
“All the defenders, they learned from someone. Nesta, he was next to Maldini. So for defenders to go to the next level you need that.”
Fofana didn't play in Potter's only match in charge as Cesar Azpilicueta was given the nod at centre-back but may well offer a counter to Crystal Palace's threatening pace and direct skill when going forward that sees him play next to Silva in what many fans hope will be a fledgling partnership.
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