New boys Graham Potter and Xabi Alonso delivering Champions League bounce

Graham Potter, the manager who a month ago confessed he thought he had never so much as attended a Uefa Champions League fixture, will on Tuesday be pacing the touchline at one of the European Cup’s great venues. His road to San Siro, where Potter’s Chelsea aim to put themselves a step closer to the knockout phase at the expense of AC Milan, has been travelled at a rapid pace.

Even quicker has been Xabi Alonso’s sudden re-acquaintance with a tournament he won twice as a player, but barely suspected, a fortnight ago, would be offering him a tempting opportunity at instant hero status as a novice coach.

Alonso will tomorrow guide Bayer Leverkusen, who appointed him as head coach last week, into a high-stakes collision with Porto. Both clubs are tied on three points with Atletico Madrid: Alonso has been thrust into a proper dogfight for second place behind runaway Group B leaders FC Brugge.

Five managers who began the season relishing the challenge of the Champions League have been sacked since matchday one, and four were at clubs – Chelsea, Sevilla, RC Leipzig and Leverkusen – who would instinctively target a place in the last 16, at least.

Getting there brings significant income, and if the target recedes, executives calculate the cost of paying off a sacked manager – even one as high-earning as Thomas Tuchel, Potter’s predecessor – against the likelihood of so-called "New Manager Bounce" – a swift uplift in form which could put the team back on track for qualification.

Potter, who took over from Tuchel a month ago, seems to have brought some bounce, on the evidence of Chelsea’s 3-0 victory over Milan seven nights ago in London, correcting a poor start to the European campaign.

Hours after Tuchel oversaw a shock 1-0