Crystal Palace 1-2 Chelsea
When Potter first arrived I was of the belief that, as long as we saw slow, steady and consistent improvement in the team, Boehly's choice to sack Tuchel would have been worth it.
This game, while it was still messy in places with things to work on, showed me that we look a lot different under the new manager and staff, and are beginning to sprout positives from only about a month's work.
I'm very happy with the win, though for a large part of the game it seems we'd be settling for a draw. A Gallagher stunner off the bench against his former club in the dying minutes (which, let's be honest, was always on the cards) meant that Potter can walk away from his first PL game as Chelsea boss with the full three points.
With Cucu absent we opted for a 4 at the back, something which we haven't seen in a long while. Silva was backed by Fofana in the pivot with Reece and Chilwell as the two full-backs. From there it was a Kovacic-Jorginho midfield, Mount and Havertz filling in the wide midfield, and an Auba-Havertz strike partnership. 4-2-2-2 was the rough outline, but Potter is such an unbelievably tactical enigma that half the time, I have no clue what his plans are.
For the second half we switched to more of a 4-3-3, due to injuries suffered by Palace in the first half which gave us opportunities to target the Eagles' more weaker players. Sterling moved from the right hand side of attack back to his favoured LW role, with Mount moving deeper into the midfield 3.
It was our subs that helped seal the game in our favour - Gallagher and Pulisic both made good impacts off the bench, the American setting up the Brit masterfully, the goal, which was Gallagher's first for Chelsea, was immense, one I watched on repeat about 50 times.
As for tactics - I'm very happy with what we're working with at the moment. It seems Potter's backroom staff have already settled in very well, as several of them found themselves getting involved with the team, giving out instructions, as well as Potter constantly making tiny switches in order to benefit us.
Conceding the first goal isn't great, but I wasn't shook by it because I've seen Potter's Brighton come back from being a goal, or even 2 down, to win games comfortably (his last game in charge against Leicester came to mind, coming back from 2-0 in the first half to eventually score 5 of their own). A lot of fans were immediately very reactionary, but an equalizer arrived from Auba, an assured finish and a sign of a truly top quality number 9. I cross my fingers and pray to high heavens that he'll carry on performances like that.
The differences I can notice is that we're getting into more intelligent attacking situations - Sterling for example, showing again to be a really smart signing by us; knows where to position himself to recieve the ball in the box and get some shots on target.
Positioning is probably the most important thing we can get right with our attackers - take Haaland from City, he's banging in goals because he makes intelligent runs + can be in the right place at the right time to pick the ball up and attack the opposition goal.
Sterling may not have gotten a goal or looked at his best today but he's still proving that he should keep his place in the team.
Gallagher as well, who got the other goal, is finally being put in a role that brings out his talents, playing higher up the pitch with the freedom to push into the opponents box. Of course he can also demonstrate his finishing ability with goals like the one he scored today, an outside the box curler that was out of reach for the GK as it landed in the top right corner of the goal.
Definetly making a case to keep a spot in the team and will give Potter a lot of thought.
My only gripe was Jorginho, who I think now doesn't really deserve a starting spot. I saw a few people on Twitter talking about what he brings to this side anymore. He's getting a bit slower, less adept at pressing or intercepting balls in that midfield role. He's good for the occasional creative spark, showing good techinique when pinging long balls to the striker, and of course he's always Mr. Reliable on a penalty, but aside from that I think he slows us down.
I'm crying out for us to use Zakaria - maybe he features in the CL fixture against Milan or at some point in the FA or Carabao Cup, but I don't want him to bench ride and decline more and more like Saul. I genuinely think he can perform well in this Chelsea team.
This game showed me that we are improving - of course I don't expect sudden overnight change and I still envision a few more scrappy games like these where we scrape a win despite some issues, but I'm very happy with where we're at and am really enjoying Potter and his staff's input into the team.
What annoyed me in Tuchel's last few matches was that whenever we went a goal behind or conceded, the mentality dropped. We'd look worse for at least 20-30 mins afterwards and we'd lose the basics and allow an opponent to capitalize. We may still not have a clean sheet yet after two games under Potter, but for me I don't think the mentality drops when we concede, we look to build back into the game and not give up hope. If we can carry on like this then it could prove to be really effective.
It was a scrappy win, but a win nonetheless, and we can take the positives to the Milan game, where a win would reignite our chances of staying in the competition.