Graham Potter on Aubameyang’s exclusion from the squad

While Enzo Fernandez made his debut against Fulham in a goalless draw. It was Aubameyang who flew to Milan after being excluded from the UCL Squad.

Chelsea could only register a few of their new signings in their squad against Dortmund in the Champions League. Thus, the World Cup winner, Enzo, and a couple of new signings made the list ahead of Aubameyang. Potter responded by saying that it was simply a matter of numbers.

Potter on Aubameyang

The Blues manager said, “He’s a professional. I understand he’ll be disappointed. It was a tough call. Pierre is just unfortunate and he’ll be fighting for his place for the rest of the season.

 “Whichever decision we made there was always going to be a conversation about it. It was my decision. You have to make these calls. He’s done nothing wrong at all.

“I’ve got a responsibility to articulate these decisions as well as I can to the player. He’s handled it very well, he trained today fantastically.”

Despite spending big in the winter window, the Blues could not get a win over Fulham. Even after adding enough players to the roster that can assemble an entirely new competitive squad, the players still need time to gel together.  

Potter about Fernandez’s debut

 “I thought he handled himself magnificently,” said Potter while praising Enzo. “You could see his quality, see what he’ll bring to the team. It wasn’t easy for him or for us because he hasn’t been with us that long. But I’m excited about him.”

 “I think we have a lot of positivity and good feeling, certainly from the start of the game, and the crowd helped with that. Within the team, there was a good feeling.”

“I agree that we didn’t do enough in terms of our attacking play to create more, which is something we need to do.”

“That bit of connection, that fluidity and understanding, we probably lacked a little bit, which is understandable when we’ve got players coming back from injury and new players in the team. That’s just where we’re at at the moment.”

“In the Premier League against organized defensive units, you’re always on your toes. Some positives from us, I thought the effort was there, and the spirit was there. But as an attacking team, we’d like to do more.”

Opinion from the rival boss

Fulham manager Marco Silva was full of praise for his players as they fought hard to earn a point in front of the Stamford Bridge crowd.

He said, “It was a proper derby. A good derby from ourselves. From the first minute, the players understood the plan and executed it well. We were here to embrace the challenge, to face them and play eye-to-eye against Chelsea.”

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