Mikel Arteta Success Shows Why Chelsea Must Stand By Graham Potter

Arsenal fans were far from convinced of Mikel Arteta at first. Indeed, the Gunners could only muster an eighth place PremierPINC
League finish in each of the Spaniard’s first two seasons in charge. Even last season, as Arsenal finished fifth, they were widely adjudged to have bottled finishing in the Champions League places.

This season, of course, has been entirely different. Everything Arteta had been building has come together with Arsenal top of the Premier League table after 23 fixtures. The Emirates Stadium has been re-energised by a team playing a brand of fast, exciting soccer. Arsenal is a good place to be again.

The same can’t be said of Chelsea at this moment. The Blues are 13 points off the pace being set by Arsenal at the top of the Premier League and are languishing firmly in mid-table. This comes after the Stamford Bridge club has spent close to $600m on new signings in the last two transfer windows.

Graham Potter is under serious pressure. Chelsea are without a win in their last five matches in all competitions with defeats to Borussia Dortmund and Southampton deepening the sense of malaise around the club. Even going further back, Chelsea have won just two of their last 14 fixtures in all competitions. Their slump is prolonged.

“We’ve had a tough period and lots of challenges in terms of integrating young players in the Premier League,” Potter said after the defeat to Southampton. “When you don’t get results, it can be tough. That’s how it is. Some people will think I’m the problem. I don’t think they’re right but that doesn’t mean they can’t articulate their views.”

Chelsea continue to reiterate their faith in Potter and they should look at Arteta’s success this season as reason for standing by the 47-year-old. Arsenal faced a crossroads where it would have been easy, and popular, to get rid of their manager, yet they committed fully to Arteta’s project and are now reaping the rewards.

It’s no wonder Potter is struggling to find the right formula. Chelsea have essentially signed a new squad of players over the last nine months and so it will take any manager time to assess what qualities are now within the Stamford Bridge dressing room. There’s no guarantee that a replacement for Potter would fare any better.

Todd Boehly and the recruitment staff at Chelsea are to blame for the team’s current problems, not Potter. They are the ones who threw too many new signings at the wall in the hope that one or two would stick. They are the ones who hired Potter with a vision in mind and then quickly deviated from that vision. But they are also the ones who now have a duty to stand by the manager who can still succeed at Stamford Bridge.