Chelsea slipped to a humbling 1-0 defeat against relegation candidates Southampton on Saturday, and their hopes of mounting a challenge to make the top four are swiftly fading away.
Boos rang around Stamford Bridge at full time, with a number of fans turning their fury towards Potter following a run of just two wins in 14 matches.
The Blues had their chances to get something from the game, but ultimately could not put the ball in the back of the net.
This is not an unfamiliar problem for Potter, who has had the same issue ever since he arrived in the Premier League at Brighton in 2019.
The Englishman inherited a limited squad at the Amex Stadium, but guided them to safety in his first two seasons, before helping them secure their first-ever top-half finish in the Premier League last term.
Yet even in Brighton's best-ever season, scoring goals was still a concern.
Only four teams scored fewer goals across the course of the campaign, and three of those sides were relegated.
But the Seagulls played excellent football under Potter, and he was widely praised for making them one of the most attractive sides to watch in the division. Surely with better players at his disposal at Chelsea scoring goals would be less of a problem?
Or not. In fact, the numbers suggest that Chelsea are now even worse in the final third than Potter's Brighton were in 2021-22.
Brighton netted 42 times last season in the league, for an average of 1.1 goals per game. Potter's Chelsea have just 15 goals from their 17 league games, an average of 0.9 goals per match.
The Blues have failed to score in three of their last four league fixtures, and worryingly appeared to run out of ideas against Southampton.
Chelsea are also not giving themselves the best chance of scoring, either, as they are taking fewer shots than Brighton did with Potter at the helm.
Brighton had 12.9 shots per game last season, but that figure drops to 11.9 for Chelsea under Potter.
It could be argued that one of Chelsea's issues is they have so many creative players on the pitch but lack a natural goalscorer.
The club signed Joao Felix and Mykhailo Mudryk last month, while Potter can also call upon the likes of Mason Mount and Hakim Ziyech, all players capable of supplying chances.
Yet Chelsea's expected goals (xG) per game is also down on Brighton's from last year.
The south coast club had an xG per match of 1.24, a touch above Chelsea's mark of 1.2 under Potter.
Despite spending £600m this season, Chelsea are still creating less clear-cut opportunities than a Brighton side that finished ninth last May.
In Potter's defence, Chelsea were hardly a free-scoring side when he replaced Thomas Tuchel in September.
Tuchel succeeded Frank Lampard in January 2021, and Chelsea finished that campaign with Jorginho as their top scorer in the league on seven goals, all of which came from the penalty spot.
Things weren't much better last season as Mount (11) was the only player in the squad to hit double figures, and there were moans from fans during the second half of the campaign that Chelsea had become one-dimensional and boring to watch.
This was expected to improve under Potter, but they have gone in the opposite direction.
Across 63 league matches under Tuchel, Chelsea averaged 1.7 goals per game, almost double the number they have managed with Potter in charge.
They also had a significantly higher xG (1.7 to 1.2), more shots (15.2 to 11.9), and created more big chances (2.4 to 1.9).
Given the number of attacking players that co-owner Todd Boehly has brought to Chelsea for Potter to work with, it is hard to understand how this side could have become even less effective at the business end of the pitch, but that is exactly what has happened.
Tuchel also still managed to build a side that won the Champions League, the Club World Cup and made three domestic cup finals.
Potter has watched his expensively-assembled team go out of the Carabao Cup and FA Cup early, while they are well off the pace in the Premier League and are trailing in their Champions League last-16 tie with Borussia Dortmund after the first leg.
Potter has received some sympathy for taking on a squad that has drastically changed over the past six months after two transfer windows of heavy spending.
He has tried several different attacking combinations in an attempt to get his side to click into gear, but is yet to find the right formula.
The Chelsea hierarchy insist that they plan to stand by him, but patience is wearing thin among the fanbase.
Potter needs to start getting a tune out of his attacking players or the board may be left with no option but to act.
Andy_Mac
439
In Graham Potter's final match for Brighton, his side won 5-2 at the AMEX. There were similar big margin victories recently namely the 4-0 win against Man Utd. Goalscoring woes has nothing to do with his tactics. Brighton never had great finishers in their team and the same applies to Chelsea right now. We had goalscoring issues under Lampard and Tuchel. I know Tuchel won some matches last season with big margins such as 7-0 vs Norwich and 6-0 vs Southampton but a big reason for that was our offensive wing backs who were at the peak of their powers. We weren't scoring many goals from our front 3. And the same holds true this season, even before Potter was appointed. So Chelsea fans who are honest with themselves would give Graham Potter more time to work with the squad. This squad isn't as good as people think it is, no matter how much money was thrown recently. The players that Chelsea fans want to defend are the same players who never made us compete for the PL title in the last 5 seasons. 1 UCL win just papers over the cracks but there is no consistency. Chelsea fans were suggesting that Mount is going to be the next Frank Lampard but he is nowhere near the levels that Lampard maintained throughout his Chelsea career. I urge Chelsea fans to stop gassing up these players too soon. Let them humble themselves down and work hard for their success and the club's success. Do not put these players on a pedestal. If the team is not performing right now, it's because some of these players are not even trying. It's embarrassing that we can't win our tackles against 20th placed Southampton in that joke of a first half. The manager is an easy scapegoat but he cannot be solely responsible for this shoddy group of players with no ambitions to win.
pobknoptz
227
Maybe very soon you will get this on your face..