See Why Chelsea Refused To Play Aubameyang Against Fulham

Graham Potter has given his reasons for snubbing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang during Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Fulham in the Premier League on Thursday night.

Potter explained that it was a tactical decision to keep Kai Havertz on the pitch rather than bring on Aubameyang.

Former Chelsea forward, Willian put Fulham in front in the first half, before defender Kalidou Koulibaly equalised for the Blues shortly after the break.

Then the Blues were reduced to 10 men when Joao Felix, playing his first game for Chelsea, was sent off for his reckless challenge on Kenny Tete.

Fulham went on to score the winner in the 75th minute through Carlos Vinicius.

Potter then made four changes with 11 minutes remaining but left Aubameyang on the bench.

After the game, the former Brighton boss was asked why he opted not to introduce the Gabonese to help Chelsea push for an equaliser, and Potter said,

“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.”

With the defeat Chelsea remain 10th in the Premier League standing, 10 points behind 4th-placed Manchester United who have a game in hand.