Chelsea manager Graham Potter explains Aubameyang’s dressing room reaction in Manchester City defeat

Chelsea lost ground in their quest to finish in the top four after a 1-0 loss to Manchester City in the Premier League.

The Blues did start the game well, restricting Manchester City to a handful of chances in the first half before Pep Guardiola made tactical substitutions that won the game for his team and ensured they closed the gap on league leaders Arsenal to five points.

Everything that could go wrong for Chelsea seems to be going wrong at the moment with the Blues losing Mason Mount days before the game at Stamford Bridge.

They then lost Raheem Sterling a minute into the game and Christian Pulisic moments after with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang replacing Sterling.

But former Arsenal striker would be hauled off in the second half after managing just one shot on target and 14 touches during his time on the field.

The Gabon international looked upset when his name was shown on the board but his manager insists he was satisfied with his reactions and pleased with what he gave the team.

Graham Potter told reporters: “I haven’t had time to speak to him as I don’t have the time but it was a normal reaction and I thought he gave the team what he could.

“When you come up against Manchester City you’re going to have to do a lot of running and I thought he did that for us and he hasn’t played a lot lately so it was reasonable to take him off at the time we did.”

Chelsea need to catch a break at some point

The Blues have now lost four of their last six Premier League games and have won just one of their last seven. Graham Potter’s side are 10th on the league table, an unusual position for the club. They are also 10 points off Champions League post.

Potter knows that the fans are turning on him but it would be interesting to see if he can pick up his team and get them back to showing the same level of commitment and professionalism in 72 hours time when they face City again in the FA Cup at the Etihad.