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By Martin Graham | 13th Mar 2023
Chelsea manager Graham Potter took all three points with his team from the King Power stadium when they travelled to face Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday.
Potter has been under fire for his side’s poor performance in the whole of 2023 but after a hard fought 1 – 0 win against Leeds United on March 4, the Blues have been on a roll.
A 2-0 win at home to Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 to overturn a 1 – 0 aggregate deficit and move on the the quarter finals of the competition followed last Tuesday. That performance was followed by a statement 3 – 1 away win in the Premier League to Leicester, which has now gotten all associated with the club excited.
The match was an important one for both sides but Chelsea showed that they wanted it more when they opened the scoring. Ben Chilwell showed up to spark chaos among Chelsea and Leicester fans with a beautiful volley which beat Leicester goalkeeper Danny Ward at his near post. This was after Mykhaylo Mudryk had a goal ruled out for offside a few minutes ago.
The former Leicester left-back enjoyed celebrating in front of the home supporters, and they responded in kind by booking every touch he and Wesley Fofana made in the game.
Patson Daka restored parity for the hosts but Kai Havertz, continuing his fine form since Chelsea’s resurgence a week ago, put them ahead to send the Blues into half time with the lead.
João Felix and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall both hit the post for Chelsea and Leicester as both teams fought for the points. Felix later had the ball in the back of the net but was ruled out for offside, marking Chelsea’s second offside goal in the game.
Havertz then started the move that led to Chelsea’s second after sending the ball across the Leicester penalty area to Mudryk, who laid it off for midfielder Mateo Kovacic to finish with a deft volley for Chelseas6official third.
Potter was happy about the win and expressed the full range of his emotions in his post-match comments.
“It’s been a good week, a really good week. Three wins, started with a determined performance against Leeds, the result against Dortmund and then to back it up today is really impressive from the players because it isn’t easy to do that in the Premier League.
‘So I’m delighted for them, delighted for the supporters who travelled, who were fantastic. So we’ve had a good week.
‘We were a few centimetres away from a couple more goals ourselves with offsides and Leicester had opportunities too. I thought they gave everything as well, so it was a game that was in the balance and our quality in the end that saw us over the line.
“It’s been a team performance over the week. It takes a bit of time to develop that, but the spirit of the boys is developing, there’s a growing togetherness that I really like. Everyon”e’s supporting each other, fighting to play, ready to play.
Chelsea will now turn their attention to Everton next weekend on March 18.
Martin Graham is an MFF sports writer
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