MY ACCOUNT
Act of madness or decisive show of winning mentality? Wherever you stand on Thomas Tuchel’s departure from Stamford Bridge, it is hard to escape the feeling that Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has taken a risk.
Recent results must be put into the context of what the club has been through this year — the departure of a long-term sugar daddy, the club’s future thrown into doubt, key players departing and a squad rebuilt.
If ever a manager had valid reason to blame external factors for on-field performances, it was Tuchel at Chelsea. And the situation is far from disastrous.
Chelsea are three points off the top four, their Champions League setback is eminently recoverable and a new-look squad will surely improve as the summer signings settle.
Incoming manager Graham Potter should prove an excellent replacement.
But he would do well to match Tuchel’s record of winning the Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup trophies in just 20 months at the Bridge — not to mention reaching two FA Cup finals and a Carabao Cup final, of which two were lost on penalties to Liverpool.
Along the road at Fulham, there has been notably less drama. But while the Cottagers have not splashed £250million on new signings and brought in a shiny new manager, Marco Silva and his team have been quietly impressive upon their return to the Premier League.
Now they will be looking to stoke things up at their local rivals by giving Potter a cold welcome to life in the Chelsea spotlight.
Team news
Silva is again set to be without wingers Manor Solomon and Harry Wilson, who both have knee injuries, but deadline day signings Dan James and Willian will both be pushing to start in attack, with the latter hoping to feature against his former club.
Left-back Antonee Robinson limped off against Tottenham last weekend but Layvin Kurzawa should slot straight in after signing on loan from Paris Saint-Germain on deadline day.
Chelsea confirmed the appointment of Potter on Thursday and he is set to get to work immediately as he looks to improve the club’s recent form.
Injury issues have largely cleared up, bar the absence of midfielder N’Golo Kante — who is expected to be out for another month — and a minor concern over goalkeeper Edouard Mendy’s fitness.
The stats
Fulham were fortunate not to lose by a bigger margin than 2-1 at Tottenham last weekend but there has been a marked difference in their home and away performances.
Striker Aleksandar Mitrovic is the second-highest scorer in the Premier League this season, registering six times.
Silva’s side have picked up only one point on the road — albeit they have had tricky trips to Spurs, Arsenal and Wolves — but at Craven Cottage they have held Liverpool to a 2-2 draw and inflicted the only defeats of the season on fast-starting pair Brentford and Brighton.
There is a similar home vs away split in recent results for Chelsea.
The Blues are unbeaten in their last seven home games, winning four, but have lost each of their last three away games.
Those defeats did not come against any big guns, either, with Dinamo Zagreb, Southampton and Leeds all seeing off a Chelsea side who have won only two of their last seven away games.
However, the Blues have an excellent record in this derby, beating Fulham in each of the last seven meetings and not losing to them in any of the last 21 head-to-heads.
Prediction
It will be interesting to see how Chelsea handle the transition between Tuchel’s defensive, pragmatic style and Potter’s more attacking but equally structured system.
Both men require their players to fully understand and implement complex plans and passing patterns so it could take some time before this becomes ‘Potter’s team’ — and for now that could extend their run of indifferent form.
Chelsea do have key players returning and will no doubt experience a degree of new manager bounce, but they have looked so vulnerable on the road in recent games that they are hard to trust.
They also visit a Fulham side who have impressed upon their return to the top flight, with the Cottagers’ only defeats in six games this season coming away from home at in-form Arsenal and Tottenham and both defeats being by only a single goal.
Six-goal striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has embodied both the work-rate and quality on show at Craven Cottage and the red-hot frontman can help Fulham earn a rare point against their neighbours.
