Graham Potter: ‘Fingers crossed’ on James injury as ‘fantastic’ Chelsea attitude hailed in ‘deserved’ win

Graham Potter hailed his Chelsea side’s “fantastic” attitude in “deserved” win over Bournemouth, while he admitted having his “fingers crossed” regarding Reece James’ injury.

Chelsea’s form under Potter has been up and down. Following a run of nine games without a loss when he arrived at the club, they then lost four of the last five.

Those were the five games that preceded the fixture against Bournemouth. While a game against the Cherries – in 14th place – might have seemed an easy to chance to pick up points, it might not have been that simple.

Indeed, Chelsea lost 1-0 to Aston Villa – also in the Premier League’s bottom half – in a friendly earlier on in December. It must be said, though, that a number of the Blues’ starters were still away at the World Cup.

A long break since the squad has last played together might have had an impact. For Bournemouth, there would be no such issues, as the majority of their squad remained together during the World Cup.

However, there was no World Cup hangover for the Chelsea players. Kai Havertz opened the scoring in the 16th minute, before Mason Mount doubled the lead eight minutes later.

Another positive was that the Blues managed to keep a clean sheet in their first game back. The return of right-back James should have been a positive, too.

He seemed to be adjusting well on his return from injury which kept him out of the World Cup. However, he was forced off early into the second half.

For Potter, the positive signs will be that the defender managed to walk off the field unassisted. It remains to be seen, though, what the extent of James’ injury is.

Potter praises ‘fantastic’ Chelsea attitude

All in all, Potter should be happy that his side managed to come away from their Premier League return with a win. He admitted that his side were deserving winners, and that they made the right efforts towards the game.

“Credit to the players. You’re never sure how it’ll go with the break we had,” he told BBC Sport.

“The first-half performance was good. The attitude was fantastic. The players tried their best.

“It was a deserved win. We had to hold on. Bournemouth made it competitive. It’s a step forward for us as a team.”

‘Fingers crossed’ on James injury

Potter touched on the injuries that were hindering his side before the World Cup. One of those was James, who missed nine Blues games, as well as the tournament, before returning against Bournemouth.

“We weren’t in the best of moments [before the break]. You have to use breaks as best you can. Evaluate and reassess and get injured players back. We used it as best we could even with players coming back at different times,” Potter said.

He seems hopeful that James’ injury is not serious, given how useful he is to the side.

“I’m not sure on the state of the injury. Too early to say. You can see his quality. It’s a blow for us. Fingers crossed. We’ll see how bad it is,” he added.

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