Chelsea WILL regret sacking Graham Potter - 'Mr Nice Guy' is destined to succeed despite nightmare spell at Stamford Bridge

Despite the result, despite the fan discontent and despite Chelsea's 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa seeing them drop into the bottom half of the Premier League table, it was still somewhat of a shock to see Graham Potter be given his marching orders by the Blues' board on Sunday evening.

That same morning, journalists had been briefed - not for the first time - that Potter's position was safe. It was all a ruse, though.

To avoid news being leaked to the media, not even Chelsea's players were informed of Potter's dismissal. Ironically, this covert media operation was one of the only examples of the Blues managing an off-field situation competently since Todd Boehly took over the club last year.

There lies the key to Potter's quite cataclysmic failure at Stamford Bridge. He was always entering an environment that made it nigh-on impossible for any manager to succeed.