Chelsea struggles continue as Spurs pile pressure on Potter

LONDON — Tottenham beat Chelsea 2-0 on Sunday to heap further pressure on Blues boss Graham Potter and leave their Champions League qualification hopes hanging by a thread.

Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane scored second-half goals to earn Spurs their first Premier League win over Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, moving 14 points clear of their bitter London rivals in the top-four race.

Potter has now failed to win any of his past six games — the longest such run for Chelsea since December 2012 — as the Blues remain in 10th place with a negative goal difference.

Tottenham, once again without coach Antonio Conte as he recovers from gallbladder surgery, now have a four-point cushion in fourth place over Newcastle, who have two games in hand.

Sunday's defeat at Tottenham leaves Chelsea 14 points outside the top four. The club's owners, led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, have always maintained their support for Potter given the sheer scale of transition since completing their takeover of the club last May. But after spending more than €600 million, there may soon come a point when the hierarchy questions whether it is getting sufficient return on that investment.

Sections of the club's fan base are already turning on the manager, and a failure to qualify for next season's Champions League would rank as an unmitigated disaster given the sheer level of investment. They still have the second leg of their round of 16 clash against Borussia Dortmund to come (they are 1-0 down), but Chelsea have now won two of the past 15 games across all competitions.

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This fixture had provided encouragement from a historical perspective: Chelsea had won all three Premier League