Graham Potter has explained why he didn't play Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in Chelsea's 2-1 Premier League loss to Fulham on Thursday.
Potter explained that keeping Kai Havertz on the field instead of bringing in Aubameyang was a tactical decision.
Willian, a former forward for Chelsea, gave Fulham the lead in the first half. After that, defender Kalidou Koulibaly scored an equalizer for the Blues.
After that, Joao Felix, who was playing his first game for Chelsea, was sent off for a careless challenge on Kenny Tete, and the Blues were down to ten men.
Carlos Vinicius's goal in the 75th minute gave Fulham the victory.
With 11 minutes remaining, Potter made four substitutions but left Aubameyang on the bench.
When asked after the game why he didn't bring in the Gabonese to help Chelsea try to score an equalizer, the former Brighton manager responded, "“We had a back five and felt we should go to a 4-4-1 and keep Kai on because I felt he was leading the line and winning challenges and duels.
“We wanted to use Hakim [Ziyech] and Carney [Chukwuemeka] to break from wide and Conor [Gallagher] to break from the centre because you know you’re going to get driven back a bit. So that was the thinking.”
Chelsea lost, dropping to 10th place in the Premier League, 10 points behind fourth-place Manchester United, who still have a game remaining.
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