Chelsea might just be turning the corner, win third game in seven days

Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Leicester completed a much-needed good week for the Blues

Graham Potter’s start at Chelsea has been something of a struggle, but this week things might have started to change for the better.

Chelsea’s confident 3-1 win at Leicester City — their first victory away from Stamford Bridge since October 16 — made it a perfect seven days for Potter’s side.

Last Saturday’s narrow 1-0 win over Leeds bought some time for the club, and a crucial (and largely deserved) 2-0 win over Dortmund sent Chelsea through to the Champions League quarterfinals mid-week.

Just under two weeks ago, things were so much different. Potter was telling reporters that he hadn’t earned much good faith from the club amid questions over whether he would be sacked after less than five months on the job.

Winning last Saturday and then again on Tuesday was helpful, but only brought so much in terms of stability. A bad result against relegation-threatened Leicester would have brought all the doubts back to the fore, as Chelsea could have still been in the bottom half of the table if Aston Villa were to win on Sunday.

Instead, the Blues looked confident from the start, and got their reward as Ben Chilwell’s angled volley found a way through traffic for an 11th minute opener.

Still, Chelsea has struggled to turn positive spells into wins, and Patson Daka’s splendid 39th minute equalizer felt like the kind of blow a team in such a fragile place might not respond well to. Between Ricardo Pereira’s spinning backheel and Daka’s beautifully-placed shot from distance, the crowd at King Power Stadium roared back to life.

However, Kai Havertz — who scored the Blues’ Champions League winner from the spot mid-week — popped up with another goal in a crucial moment. In the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time, and facing a wall of eight Leicester players behind the ball, Enzo Fernández surveyed his options and made eye contact with Havertz.

Leicester may have suspected a through ball was coming, but Fernández and Havertz had something different in mind: a lob, paired with a perfectly-timed run between the center backs, allowed an onside Havertz to cruelly guide the ball over Danny Ward, giving Chelsea their lead back at the perfect time.

Leicester made an effort to come back, but ultimately Chelsea did what a big club is supposed to do: manage the game with confidence, and then finish it off with an additional goal.

Havertz was involved again, getting in behind to float a cross to Mykhailo Mudryk. The Ukrainian didn’t have an option to turn the delivery into a shot, so he did the next best thing, cushioning a header to Mateo Kovačić for an improvised finish.

“It’s been a really positive week for us,” Potter told Sky Sports after the match. “Three wins against Leeds, Dortmund and today says a lot about the development of the team. It’s a hard fought game, as they always are, but in the end I thought we deserved to win.”

“Three wins in the week at this level is very pleasing,” added Potter before underlining the fact that there’s still a long road ahead. “We have to follow that up with a win next weekend and then into the international break. We will try to get three points against Everton.”

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