Patrick Vieira has praised Todd Boehly for giving Graham Potter a chance following the controversial Thomas Tuchel sacking ahead of the London derby this weekend between Crystal Palace and Chelsea in the Premier League. The former Brighton manager has already spoken about the feelings of his first Premier League game being against a rival club of the Seagulls and the challenges that will pose to his mindset with the Englishmen not faring well when coming up against the south Londoners.
Graham Potter said: “I’ve missed those stats bringing a bit of negativity. It just shows how the Premier League is and how tough it is. We’ve had some tough games against Palace where we could have won and the margins are small but that’s how it is. That’s history. We’re looking forward to the game on Saturday and changing that record.”
Whilst also admiring Vieira in his pre-match press conference, his managerial counterpart reciprocated the respect and even went as far as to say that Boehly was right to hand Potter the opportunity to replace Tuchel.
Patrick Vieira said: “We just look at what he has been doing at Brighton, and analysing the first game [Chelsea] played in the Champions League. Seeing if there is something we can take to allow ourselves to perform in a better way. When a manager works well for a couple of years, he deserves a chance in one of the top teams. When you look at his record in the last couple of years, he’s been doing fantastically well with Brighton and today he’s with Chelsea. I wish him all the best – after the game on Saturday.”
In spite of Potter only playing out one game in the last 23 days which was the RB Salzburg Champions League draw, Palace will be well briefed about what their manager saw as he was present alongside Gareth Southgate for that game.
