Graham Potter

Champions League winners one minute, sacking the manager who won them the trophy the next. They've done that twice in the last decade. The Blues currently find ...

The Magpies haven’t lost a game since a defeat to Liverpool in August. In terms of games you’d want ahead of the six-week for the World Cup, a visit to in-form Newcastle United wouldn’t be your first choice. Boehly was said to be irritated by his manager turning his nose up at the commercial boon Ronaldo would provide, and the seeds were sown which bore rotten fruit a few weeks later. Having laboured for a year with the one-note Lukaku, the German wasn’t keen on the similarly-limited Ronaldo leading his line. One widely reported instance of friction between manager and co-owner was the subject of Cristiano Ronaldo. If this result had come during an otherwise-solid run, it would have been put down to the vagaries of knockout football. But the end of the German’s tenure hints that Abramovich’s trigger-happy streak may live on at Chelsea through its new owners. The 2-0 defeat was not as humiliating as the 4-1 league reverse to Brighton & Hove Albion or as frustrating as the 1-0 defeat to rivals Arsenal. Having dispensed with Marina Granovskaia, the club director who drove Chelsea’s transfer business, Boehly took on the role himself for the summer transfer window. But when a result like this arrives during a rotten run of domestic form, it raises concerns. The misery was compounded on Wednesday when Manchester City put Chelsea to the sword in the Carabao Cup. The Blues currently find themselves without a win in their last five domestic games under Graham Potter, the replacement for Champions League-winning manager Thomas Tuchel.