Graham Potter’s Chelsea Finally Catches a Break With Champions League Turnaround

Facing a one-goal deficit in the round of 16 second leg, the Blues overcame their scoring drought—and found some luck—for an inspiring win over Borussia Dortmund.

Was this the night when the corner was turned for Graham Potter at Chelsea? This was the first time Chelsea had scored more than once in a game in 2023 and a 2–0 win was enough to overturn a first-leg deficit against Borussia Dortmund and reach the quarterfinal of the Champions League.

The club’s leadership has been supportive of Potter throughout Chelsea’s lean spell and there has been little sense, even from this leakiest of dressing rooms, that the players have turned on him. Yet after a run of form such as Chelsea had been on, there are inevitable questions about the future of the manager. For now, at least, those questions will be asked less vociferously. Quite apart from anything, this was a night when, at last, fortune began to go Potter’s way.

Chelsea waited until its biggest match of the year for its first two-goal outing in 2023 :: IMAGO/PA Images

Goals have proved extremely hard to come by for Potter’s Chelsea. It had scored just two goals in its previous seven games, and just three in the seven before that. The 1–0 win over Leeds on Saturday was just its second win in 12 games. Yet the sense has been that Chelsea has not been playing especially badly; it’s just that it cannot score. That was a problem for Potter at Brighton as well, raising the question of whether he has simply been unfortunate in managing two sides without a clinical goalscoring striker (and Chelsea is aware of that, with a deal for RB Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku to come in the summer apparently agreed), or whether there is something inherent in the way he has his sides play football.

The problem is probably self-perpetuating. When chances are missed, confidence dips, making subsequent chances harder to convert—the opposite, in effect, to Liverpool’s flurry of goals in the second half against Manchester United on Sunday when almost every shot flew in. But sometimes, luck is simply against a side. When Kai Havertz ran on to a loose ball just inside the box after 28 minutes, he seemed to have done everything right. He got over the ball and hit his shot cleanly down and past the left hand of the Dortmund keeper Alexander Meyer. But the ball, having hit the inside of the post, spun along the entire lengthy of the goal before going out for a goal kick. When Havertz, a little later, struck another shot that hit the woodwork and went in, it turned out Sterling was offside.

When a Ben Chilwell free kick bounced back off the heel of Kalidou Koulibaly when he seemed only to have to shepherd it over the line, Chelsea must have begun to wonder if it was ever going to score. Thoughts, perhaps, went back to Emre Can’s remarkable block on the lie in the first half. And then there were the chances that were missed with rather less excuse. But eventually, two minutes before halftime, a goal did come —albeit only after a horrible mis-kick and, at last, a moment of fortune for Potter’s side.

Borussia Dortmund’s impressive away showing didn’t translate onto the pitch at Stamford Bridge.  :: IMAGO/Sebastian Frej

Chelsea’s wing-backs had struggled to get forward but when Chilwell eventually did get into a good crossing position near the byline, his cutback found Sterling. The former Liverpool and Manchester City forward, though, is never at his best when he has time to think. He took a huge swing, fluffed his kick embarrassingly, but then had the alertness to pounce on the loose ball and, having to act instinctively, thrashed his shot into the net to level the tie on aggregate.

If Chelsea felt then that the tide might have turned, it was surely confirmed early in the second half. First, a Chilwell cross struck the arm of Marius Wolf, leading after a VAR review, to a penalty. Havertz, who had had an excellent night, checked his run-up, sent Meyer sprawling the wrong way, but then struck the post with his penalty. But VAR reprieved him, penalizing Niklas Süle for encroachment. Havertz’s second attempt was identical to his first, with the exception that he tucked it a couple of feet inside the post.

Chelsea needed a couple of decent saves from Kepa Arrizabalaga and a remarkable miss from Jude Bellingham to maintain its lead, but it held out relatively comfortably. Then again, shutting the opposition out has never been the issue; scoring goals has been. If they do begin to flow a little more easily, Chelsea may be serious contenders.