HAVING waited patiently for his chance, Armando Broja gave Graham Potter plenty to think about in his post-match Chelsea debrief.
The Albanian striker came on as a late second-half substitute against Wolverhampton Wanderers and celebrated his first goal in club colours.
Though he had to wait for a VAR check on whether he was offside or not, the 21-year-old was able to mark this special occasion in the 90th minute of a routine 3-0 win over limited opposition.
Had the Blues boss felt so inclined he could have logged on to Twitter in the hours before this routine win and seen that hundreds of fans were calling for Broja to start up front.
When they all discovered he had chosen Kai Havertz instead, many expressed their displeasure and frustration in up to 280 characters.
Including one prominent Chelsea “content publisher and writer”, who has close to 200,000 followers and therefore considerable influence among the ranks.
READ MORE ON CHELSEA
Those social media ‘experts’ may argue that they were proved right in the end – even though Havertz opened the scoring at the end of the first half.
But Broja, who last month signed a six-year contract, has yet to start a Prem match for the club.
This was his sixth appearance this season from the subs bench and it is to his credit that he took the opportunity in such empathic fashion with a brilliant strike.
Though he might be third choice behind Havertz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the pecking order, Broja will give Potter a selection headache if continues to deliver in his cameos like this.
Most read in Football
HOW TO GET FREE BETS ON FOOTBALL
Chelsea are not afraid to play the youngsters and the likes of Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher are making the most of their time in the spotlight.
And Potter, recruited exactly a month ago from Brighton to replace the axed Thomas Tuchel, is not afraid to change his side and his formation as he sees fit.
The starting XI here had seven changes from those who took to the field against AC Milan in Champions League action three days ago.
It is too early, of course, to call him the new Tinkerman – a nickname forever associated in these parts with the eccentric Claudio Ranieri.
But he has already showed he is willing to make drastic changes to suit both the opposition and occasion.
And Aubameyang, who had been in good form with two goals in his past two appearances, would have been forgiven for thinking he might have had the chance to test out the Wolves defence.
Yet given the number of matches in the next six weeks before the World Cup break, Potter will continue to rest and rotate his squad as they compete on domestic and European fronts.
Players like Broja and maybe the noisy Twitterati will have to accept Potter’s methods for now.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
