LONDON (Reuters) – Chelsea manager Graham Potter said he expects new signing Joao Felix to make a difference in the attacking third after the youngster joined the London club on a loan deal from Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.
Felix, 23, will be at Chelsea on loan until the end of the season as they try to fix their attacking issues and move up the league standings, currently sitting 10th on 25 points from 17 games.
The Portugal forward’s arrival at Stamford Bridge comes in the wake of injuries to Raheem Sterling, Christian Pulisic and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
“He’s a quality player, he will make a difference in the final third of the pitch and I’m looking forward to working with him,” Potter told reporters ahead of Thursday’s league trip to Fulham in which he hoped to have Felix available to select.
“He’s young, but still has lots of good experience and it’s given us all a bit of a lift. I’ve been aware of the potential deal for a while but the injuries we’ve had maybe sharpened our focus on it, but it’s nice to get him here.”
Potter said Aubameyang (lower back) is fit to return for the game, but attacking midfielder Christian Pulisic (knee) will be out for up to two months after getting injured during their 1-0 league loss to Manchester City last week.
“Pierre is fine and he will be in the squad. Ruben (Loftus-Cheek) is also back in training. Christian Pulisic is not ready, he is a couple of months away, we think,” Potter said.
“Raheem Sterling is hopefully less than that. Reece James is also back at work.”
With Chelsea having won only two of their last 10 games in all competitions, pressure is mounting on Potter to turn things around.
“You have to understand it’s part of the job,” the English coach said when asked about how he handles the criticism.
“There’s always pressure, and the higher you go, especially at a club like Chelsea with such history and tradition, and the demands of it, then of course there is noise and criticism.
“It’s everything you’d expect but you’ve just got to stay strong and keep trying to improve… I do acknowledge that our results haven’t been good enough, but we’ve got to keep moving forward.”
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
