Graham Potter may never play Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang again after his “hopeless” display against Manchester City, according to Chris Sutton.
Aubameyang replaced Raheem Stering who was forced off through an injury in the fifth minute, before Potter substituted him after an hour of doing very little at Stamford Bridge.
He was replaced by Omari Hutchinson, who made his first senior start since his summer move from Arsenal, and the Blues were much improved with the teenager on the pitch, along with fellow youngsters Connor Gallagher and Lewis Hall.
And their displays highlighted Aubemayang’s inadequacy according to Sutton, who slammed the Gabon international over his seeming lack of effort.
Sutton told the BBC: “Aubameyang looked like he didn’t want to be here this evening. He’s not the only one. Cucurella, they’ve spent an absolute fortune on him and he looks well, well short for a Chelsea team that want to win trophies.
“I wonder whether Graham Potter is thinking, how can I play Aubameyang again in a Chelsea jersey after how woeful he was.
“I’m always wary to criticise players for lack of effort or poor body language but Aubameyang absolutely epitomised that – I thought he was woeful and hopeless and didn’t give anywhere near enough.
“He looked disinterested and I suspect Graham Potter will be thinking, blimey, he is never going to play in a Chelsea jersey again under me.”
Potter later defended Aubameyang in his post match press conference and claimed his lack of minutes recently contributed to his decision to substitute the substitute.
He said: “He came on after one minute, hadn’t played for a while, and put in an absolute shift for us given Manchester City make you run a lot. I thought he did everything he could for the team.
“He was fatiguing a little bit, same as Hakim [Ziyech], so that was the decision. We needed a little bit of energy so I thought we could use Omari [Hutchinson], Conor [Gallagher], and Lewis [Hall]. Of course, players want to stay on the pitch and influence the game. It’s a normal reaction.”
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