Why Potter’s magic has made him Chelsea’s new man

If Chelsea are serious about rebuilding the club from top to bottom, a long-term job whoever is in charge, they have picked a man who ticks all the right boxes in Brighton’s Graham Potter.

Six games into the new season, his now former-Seagulls side sit three points and two places above Chelsea in the table, despite significantly inferior resources to the Blues and any of the other teams around them.

It’s not about that small sample though. What Potter has been building at Brighton has been far longer in the making. The obvious product of his philosophy has been their brand of passing football, but his work on the south coast has run far beyond the tactics board.

Now, his success has proven enough for Chelsea owner Todd Boehly to decide the 47-year-old is a better fit to run his new club than a man who led them to the Champions League only 15 months ago.

That decision to pull the trigger only 100 days into his ownership will raise eyebrows about appointing a man like Potter, who finished 15th and 16th in his first two seasons at the Amex Stadium.