Potter: Owners 'smart' enough to keep me on as manager

Graham Potter vehemently denied implications that he might not see out the season at Chelsea despite their disappointing record under his tenure.

Potter's side have won just two of their last 10 Premier League encounters, most recently falling 1-0 to Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

Speculation about Potter's longevity at the club has run more rampant in recent days, but the Blues boss insisted he did not need validation from anyone outside the confines of his club.

"The owners are billionaires so they're quite smart," he said. "Smarter than me, that's for sure. So they understand the challenges that we have and the direction we want to go in. I've been here four months and five, six weeks of that have been lost to international football.

"I think Pep (Guardiola) was (at Manchester City) a year before they'd won anything, and then obviously Mikel (Arteta) and Jurgen (Klopp) took a bit of time. But obviously it's maybe different for me, for some reason. But I don't put a timescale on it. I know the responsibility we have here.

"But also I know that I am capable, and I know the quality that I have and I have the full support of certainly the owners, the players and the staff here. And you can see by the support we had (against City), it was fantastic, so there will always be people that doubt.

"There's nothing you can do, but certainly I'm not here to convince anybody. I'm here to do my I work and then if that convinces then that's fine."

Chelsea go head-to-head with City again on Sunday, this time at the Etihad in the FA Cup third round.

Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic were both forced off the pitch on Thursday, adding to an injury nightmare Potter summarised by saying: "I've never experienced anything like it."

The pair