Chelsea manager Graham Potter likely won’t be sacked as a result of Champions League elimination to Dortmund on Tuesday night.
However he, and Chelsea, could desperately use a win. The Blues grabbed their first win in seven games 1 – 0 against Leeds on Saturday. A boost, but not consequential as Chelsea looked destined for a mid table finish this season.
The increasingly weary Graham Potter needs a Champions League run to put some credit in the bank and keep the season alive.
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The Champions League is Chelsea’s last chance of silverware this season. Even if winning it is unlikely, the feeling that they could might be important.
If they get knocked out, Chelsea face twelve Premier League games with absolutely nothing to play for. This is the last place a big club wants to find itself in. With neither the football or the results inspiring anybody, the post-Abramovic wasteland that is Stamford Bridge could become infertile.
A European run would add some much-needed dynamism to a season threatening to fizzle out. Besides, who’s to say they couldn’t win it? Knockout football is strange, Chelsea are even stranger and they do have form for this.
When they first won the Champions League in 2012 it came at the end of one of their worst seasons in years. A combination of Andre Villas-Boas and the unfancied Roberto Di Matteo lead them to sixth in the league, their lowest finish since 2002.
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Yet, they won the Champions League against Bayern Munich with pulsating victories over Benfica, Napoli and Barcelona along the way. Apparently, with the league gone, the Chelsea players resolved to win the Champions League at half time at home to Napoli.
Of course, Di Matteo was sacked despite his achievement, so perhaps Graham Potter cannot save himself anyway. He can save this season though, and there are many hoping he does, for his sake.
