Graham Potter makes honest admission about lack of ‘quality’ among Chelsea players

Graham Potter believes his Chelsea side ‘huffed and puffed’ in a 1-0 defeat at home to Arsenal on Sunday.

The Blues played much of the game on the back foot and had to look long in an attempt to steal a march on the visitors, but were unsuccessful and fell behind after an hour thanks to Gabriel’s eventual winner.

A loss means Chelsea have slumped to back-to-back Premier League defeats for the first time since 2020, having lost to Brighton last weekend.

Speaking to Chelsea’s official website after the game, Potter evaluated the performance: “I thought we huffed and puffed, to be honest.”

“We played against a team in a good moment, good confidence. They’ve been working together for a while and we’re not probably at that stage in terms of where our fluidity is where our confidence is, and that was probably reflected in the performance.

“Like I said the effort was there from the players. We pushed, but in the end we probably have to say, as much as it’s not nice to say, Arsenal deserved the win over the course of the game.”

Potter added, discussing the impact of injuries on his squad: “We’ve suffered a few key ones, injuries, which doesn’t help us. And then like I said a few results and then the confidence can go a little bit. But that’s just part of the challenge, that’s just part of the pain that you have to go through to get yourself to where you want to be.

Drawing on Arsenal’s journey under Mikel Arteta, Potter insisted that his side can ‘still do better’ and highlighted that he would like to see more quality from Chelsea moving forward.