Chelsea Manager Graham Potter Must Take Encouragement From Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal Success

It all started so well for Graham Potter at Chelsea. An eight-match unbeaten run following the 47-year-old’s appointment at September suggested they were heading in the right direction, but the Blues entered the World Cup break on the back of three straight defeats with Potter already facing criticism.

Chelsea hired Potter to create a new culture at the club. That process will take time and the Blues boss should take encouragement from the success enjoyed by Mikel Arteta at Arsenal this season. Not so long ago, Arteta was under pressure as his methods failed to produce results. Now, his Arsenal team are PremierPINC
League title challengers.

It took Arteta two seasons not only to get his ideas across to his players, but to find the right players who could take them on board. Arsenal had to line up behind the Spaniard to recruit in the way he wanted and in the way that gave the Gunners a chance to build a squad capable of topping the Premier League.

Potter has inherited a squad that isn’t his. Chelsea have assembled their current team under two different managers – Thomas Tuchel and Frank Lampard – and so Potter hasn’t been able to impose his own game since taking over in September. It’s at this point that he must gauge whether he truly has the backing from his employers to make fundamental changes.

“It’s not nice to not get results,” said Potter after the 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United. “It’s as simple as that but I have to look at why that is and the situation that we’ve had to deal with. It hasn’t been straightforward at all. We’ve had a lot of games, a few injuries to key players, destabilised us, today again you see they’re missing. Just had a period that’s been incredibly challenging.

“You face four of the teams in the best moment in the Premier League in terms of the version of themselves and that can challenge you as well. As much as we can’t accept it, we have to deal with it and try to move forward.”

The World Cup break comes at a good time for Chelsea. This interruption in the club season will allow Potter time to reconsider his approach and work on ideas with the players not travelling to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. What’s more, the January transfer window is starting to appear on the horizon.

Arteta isn’t the only Premier League manager who should give Potter encouragement that he can find the right formula at Chelsea. It took Jurgen Klopp a number of seasons to turn Liverpool into genuine title challengers. The top end of the Premier League table is now so competitive that it’s increasingly rare for managers to have an overnight impact.

Chelsea are one of the few clubs with the resources to compete for the Premier League title and in Potter they believe they have one of the best young managers in the game right now. Arsenal believed similar with Arteta even when others couldn’t see it. The Blues faith in their own decisions will now be tested.