Revealed: Inside Graham Potter’s Chelsea sacking as STUNNED players find out through social media

• Blues part with second boss of the season
• Have slipped into bottom-half of the table
• Now in the hunt for another new coach

WHAT HAPPENED? Potter’s 31-game tenure at Stamford Bridge was brought to a close on Sunday evening, with a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa hammering the final nail into his coffin. The 47-year-old walks away having collected just 12 wins during his time in charge, with his average Premier League points return of just 1.27 per game the joint-lowest of any coach to have overseen 20 or more top-flight matches at the Blues’ helm.

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THE BIGGER PICTURE: Chelsea’s ownership group, which is fronted by Todd Boehly, felt they were left with no choice but to part with a second manager of the 2022-23 campaign – having already offloaded Thomas Tuchel back in September. With over £600 million ($738m) invested in new players, a bottom-half standing in the table was deemed to be unacceptable.

AND WHAT'S MORE: News of Potter’s sudden departure did, however, come as a surprise to some players. The Telegraph reports that many were quick to contact their representatives after only discovering that another change in the dugout had been made when an official announcement was made shortly after 8pm on Sunday.

One source said: “Most of the players had no idea until they saw the statement. People were asking who would be taking training on Monday and who is in charge for Tuesday. Virtually all of them were in recovery or training on Sunday, so they were shocked to find this out at home.”

IN TWO PHOTOS:

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Getty/GOAL

WHAT NEXT? Chelsea are now in the hunt for another new boss, with 10 Premier League games and a Champions League quarter-final clash with Real Madrid still to come this season. The likes of Julian Nagelsmann, Mauricio Pochettino and Luis Enrique are currently leading next manager betting markets.