Graham Potter insisted he is not at fault for Chelsea\u2019s woes as the struggling Blues hit a new low in Saturday\u2019s 1-0 defeat against Southampton.<\/p>\n
Potter\u2019s side were beaten by the Premier League\u2019s bottom club, who took the points home from Stamford Bridge thanks to a trademark free-kick from James Ward-Prowse late in the first half.Southampton won for just the second time in the league since October, leaving hapless Chelsea\u2019s winless run in the league at four matches.<\/span><\/p>\n Chelsea struggled to create clear chances and were booed off by frustrated fans at the end of an eighth goalless effort in their last 13 games.<\/span><\/p>\n With the pressure mounting on Potter, who was only hired to replace the sacked Thomas Tuchel in September, the former Brighton boss launched a stout defence of his credentials.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAfter a 1-0 defat at home, any criticism you get is understandable,\u201d Potter said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had a tough period, we\u2019ve had lots of challenges, integrating young players into the Premier League. Whilst results don\u2019t go your way, it can be tough.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure there will be people out there who will think I\u2019m the problem. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re right.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not arrogant enough to say their opinion isn\u2019t worth articulating. My job is to help the team keeping working through a tough period.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Chelsea spent more than \u00a3300 million ($361 million) on new signings in the January transfer window, but Potter is yet to turn that huge investment into an improvement in results.<\/span><\/p>\n Aware of the talk that he could be facing the sack, Potter conceded Chelsea\u2019s latest loss, coming days after a 1-0 defeat at Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League last 16 first leg, was another blow.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is we took a step back in our performance in the first half. The response in the second half was good, but not good enough,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen we\u2019ve lost 1-0 at home to Southampton, with the greatest respect to them, it isn\u2019t good enough. The first half was as much my responsibility as anybody\u2019s. I thought the performance wasn\u2019t good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Potter\u2019s problems were compounded by a serious injury to captain Cesar Azpilicueta in the second half, with the defender leaving the pitch on a stretcher with an oxygen mask after being kicked in the head by Sekou Mara.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s in hospital. He\u2019s conscious, he was speaking to his wife. We are obviously really concerned. He\u2019s in the best place and we\u2019ll keep monitoring him,\u201d Potter said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think he was unconscious. We have to take all the precautions we need to take now. It was worrying. It was a horrible incident.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n AFP<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Graham Potter insisted he is not at fault for Chelsea\u2019s woes as the struggling Blues hit a new low in Saturday\u2019s 1-0 defeat against Southampton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1373,6495],"class_list":["post-12204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-chelsea","tag-graham-potter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12206,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12204\/revisions\/12206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}