Chelsea earned a hugely important three points on Saturday afternoon as Wesley Fofana’s header saw the Blues beat Leeds 1-0 at Stamford Bridge.
The pressure will have eased on Graham Potter somewhat but his future could still hang in the balance on Tuesday night when his side must overturn a one-goal deficit as they face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
After overseeing a rare win against Javi Gracia’s side, which was the first for Chelsea since early January, Graham Potter will have some big decisions to make ahead of Tuesday’s crucial European tie.
It seems clear that after a superb performance against the Yorkshire outfit, Raheem Sterling should be given the nod to start at Stamford Bridge, as he showed his quality in the 1-0 win.
How did Sterling play against Leeds?
As per Sofascore, the former Manchester City man would earn a 7.5/10 rating for his display, with only Kalidou Koulibaly (7.8) rated higher of every player to feature in the game from both sides.
Sterling has endured a difficult time since his summer switch, notching just four goals and two assists in the Premier League, but that is the joint-most goal contributions of any Chelsea player this season, which perhaps puts into perspective just how much the Blues have struggled from an attacking point of view.
During the game against Leeds, the 28-year-old would register an impressive three key passes, four successful dribbles and an 80% duel success rate, which suggests that he was a constant threat to the Leeds defence.
Considering he has averaged just 1.4 key passes and 1.3 dribbles per game in the Premier League so far this campaign, it is clear that he was back to his best on Saturday afternoon.
In his 68 minutes on the pitch, he would also contribute 40 touches of the ball and two shots, which suggests that he was incredibly involved and perhaps unlucky to be taken off by Potter.
Described by talkSPORT pundit Tony Cascarino as “frightening” in the past, Sterling perhaps just needs a run of games to rediscover his best form at Stamford Bridge, having been a consistent source of goals for both City and Liverpool in the past, hitting the net 131 times during his spell at the Citizens.
With the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Noni Madueke and Mykhailo Mudryk all failing to fire, with just one assist between them in the top flight this season, Sterling must surely be given another chance to impress against Dortmund on Tuesday night.