Chelsea boss Graham Potter defended leaving Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the bench for defeat at Fulham last night.

Potter was pushed about his team selection during the 2-1 loss.

He said, “We had a back five and felt we should go to a 4-4-1 and keep Kai [Havertz] on because I felt he was leading the line and winning challenges and duels. We wanted to use Hakim [Ziyech] and Carney [Chukwuemeka] to break from wide and Conor [Gallagher] to break from the centre because you know you're going to get driven back a bit. So that was the thinking."

On Joao Felix's dismissal on debut, Potter said: "I don't think it was an emotional one from Joao, it didn't feel that to me. It was a miss-control and then just a football action that can happen with the speed of the Premier League and a game of football at this level.

"There was no malice, he didn't go into hurt anybody, he didn't lose his head, it just was what it was. Sometimes these things happen and they're against you and you have to suffer. And believe you me, we are suffering at the moment."

Asked if goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga could've done better for Fulham's second goal, Potter added: "I never like to speak about individuals when we lose. I think the goal itself is a frustrating one from our perspective because I didn't think they were putting us under too much pressure even though they had an extra man. So felt like a soft goal to concede and that is something we have to do better with."