Potter suffered his first defeat as Chelsea manager on Saturday, a chastening 4-1 at his previous employers Brighton
Graham Potter quintupled his income when he left Brighton for Chelsea, according to some estimates. So this, it is tempting to think after their 4-1 humiliation away to his former club, is where he earns the big bucks.
Chelsea were not as bad at the Amex Stadium as the score suggests, but neither were they as comfortable in all their previous nine games as you might assume from their unbeaten record under Potter. Deficiencies that were present away to Aston Villa and Brentford and at home to Manchester United were exposed on Saturday by Brighton and now it is up to the head coach to justify his fivefold increase in salary by fixing them.
Not that everything that is going wrong for Chelsea is under his control, of course. Injuries that denied him the services of N’Golo Kante, Reece James, Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly would test any squad, even one as well-funded as Chelsea’s. Thiago Silva, 38, playing three successive matches to satisfy the demands of a brutal fixture list was always likely to be a risk.
But picking the best combination of players at your disposal is one of the basics, especially when you are facing an opponent that you should know like the back of your hand, whatever tactical changes new Brighton head coach Roberto De Zerbi may have made.