Graham Potter believes his players’ willingness to work hard do “the ugly stuff” is the reason for Chelsea’s excellent defensive record under him.
The Blues were poor at the back earlier in the season under ex-boss Thomas Tuchel but it has been a different story since Potter took over.
Sunday’s 2-0 win at Aston Villa was Chelsea’s fourth clean sheet in a row – and fifth consecutive victory.
Asked about that at his post-match press conference, Potter said: “It is a collective desire to do the ugly stuff in a game and to help each other and to be together.
“If we have to suffer we have to suffer. Sometimes we have to have humility but at least we have players running and blocking shots.
“That is an important part of the game because we have the quality elsewhere.”
Potter had to make adjustments at half-time at Villa, where he changed the shape and brought on Kalidou Koulibaly.
“It’s like anything, you have to look at the balance of the team,” Potter explained.
“If you look at what we did, Marc Cucerella was the left centre-back, which can work but didn’t so much, so we had to adjust those positions bringing Kalidou on.”