Graham Potter has admitted that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s heavy workload is the reason he was only given ten minutes against Brentford in Wednesday’s exciting 0-0 draw.
The Gabon forward was left on the bench until the 80th minute of the game, despite Potter’s Blues clearly struggling in front of goal in the back and forth stalemate.
But the Chelsea manager claimed Aubameyang has already ‘played a lot’ since his £10million arrival from Barcelona on transfer deadline day – and his absence allowed the likes of Kai Havertz the opportunity to play themselves into form.
‘Yeah, of course, but I know the reasons why,’ explained Potter to reporters when asked whether he was tempted to bring on Aubameyang earlier in the tie.
‘Again, it’s the load of him, he’s played a lot, and it gives the chance for Kai to score and play, and we were close with that. Yeah, I understand the question.’
While the defensive unit of Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly did its job with another clean sheet, the visitors clearly struggled going forward.
However the former Brighton boss was adamant that there were opportunities for his side, before insisting that there was still work to be done on the training field.
The west London outfit had won five in a row in Potter’s first six games in charge before Wednesday – keeping clean sheets now in four of their last five games in all competitions – in a run that has propelled them up to fourth in the Premier League and to the top of their Champions League group.
But with their star striker left on the bench until the eleventh hour, Chelsea dropped points for the first time under Potter in over a month. (DailyMail)