(Reuters) – Chelsea’s sixth Premier League defeat of the season left them in 10th place, but manager Graham Potter said he continues to feel the support of the players and the club’s ownership despite their struggles.
Chelsea have put in a run of poor performances under Potter in recent weeks, and their 1-0 defeat to Manchester City on Thursday was their fourth loss in six league games.
The London club were also knocked out of the League Cup by City in November, damaging their prospects of winning silverware this season, though they remain alive in the Champions League and will face Borussia Dortmund in the last 16.
Potter highlighted the beginnings of Pep Guardiola, Juergen Klopp and Mikel Arteta’s reigns at City, Liverpool and Arsenal respectively, and the fact that the trio all failed to win a trophy in their first seasons in charge of their clubs.
“I think Pep was there a year before they won anything, and then obviously Mikel and Juergen took a bit of time,” Potter told reporters ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup third-round tie at City. “It may be different for me, but I don’t put a timescale on it…
“I know that I’m capable and I know the quality that I have. I have the full support of the owners and the players and the staff here. And you can see by the support that we have out there, it’s fantastic.
“There will always be people that have doubt, but I’m not here to convince anybody. I’m here to do my work. And then if that convinces them, that’s fine.”
Under former owner Roman Abramovich, Chelsea employed a ruthless strategy when it came to hiring and firing at Stamford Bridge, with managers rarely overstaying their welcome.
However, Potter said that approach has changed significantly since a consortium headed by American Todd Boehly completed a 4.25 billion pounds ($5.10 billion) takeover of the London club last year.
“There’s a completely different ownership than there was. This is hard for people to get their heads around because Chelsea for 20 years has been one thing, and now all of a sudden it’s different,” Potter, who was appointed after Thomas Tuchel was sacked weeks into the new season, said.
“The reason for me to take the job was because you’ve got a chance to shape a club that is in a massive transitional period. With that, I knew there were going to be extreme challenges.
“It’s not like I was jumping at the first opportunity to move from Brighton. This move felt like the right one because of the owners, because of the support that I thought they would give and that’s proven to be the case, they’ve been fantastic.”
($1 = 0.8326 pounds)
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Nashik, India; Editing by Toby Davis)
