Chelsea news: The Blues battled to a deserved Champions League victory against Borussia Dortmund at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night to ease pressure on manager Graham Potter

Chelsea news: The Blues battled to a deserved Champions League victory against Borussia Dortmund at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night to ease pressure on manager Graham Potter

On a night where Chelsea needed a victory, everyone inside Stamford Bridge played their part to perfection.

 From minute one to the final seconds of added time, all 15 Chelsea players that stepped onto the pitch played a significant role in a much-needed win for the Blues and Graham Potter.  While victory against Leeds stopped a run of six games without a win, the Champions League clash against Borussia Dortmund was seen as the defining game in Chelsea's season.

 Behind a goal from the first leg, the Blues needed to muster up reserves of courage and fight to bypass a team who had not lost a competitive game since early November, and that was exactly what they did.  A scrappy opening to the game mostly dominated by Dortmund sprung into life from a Chelsea perspective when Raheem Sterling was playing through on goal, but the offside flag prevented that play from progressing.

 However, the next time Sterling faced the Dortmund goal he made no mistake.  After scuffing his first attempt from Ben Chilwell's cross, the 28-year-old fired a second effort into the roof of the net.  In the second half, Kai Havertz then doubled Chelsea's advantage, placing them in front of the tie, from the penalty spot after VAR judged that Marius Wolf handled an attempted ball into the box from Chilwell.

 However, Chelsea held firm with Kepa Arrizabalaga rarely tested as Chelsea secured a second clean sheet in four days and back-to-back wins for the first time since October.

 While the players put in a tremendous shift and Potter got his substitutions bang on, Chelsea already had the mental advantage over Dortmund courtesy of the Stamford Bridge faithful.  Those who tuned into the clash on TV at exactly 8pm would have certainly been surprised when advertisers were playing, but that was because the kick-off had been delayed by 10 minutes because the Dortmund team bus got delayed on route to the ground.

 The reason for the significant hold up was because Chelsea fans had blocked an entrance to a road used to gain access to Stamford Bridge.  The Dortmund stars therefore did not get into the ground until 7pm, at least 15 minutes after there planned arrival.

 Pre-match preparations for Edin Terzic and his players were therefore likely very disrupted and the delay could have directly contributed to the injury suffered by Julian Brandt within the first five minutes of the clash.