Guardiola gives honest assessment of Graham Potter ahead of Man City vs Chelsea Carabao Cup clash

Topics: Graham Potter, Pep Guardiola, Chelsea, Manchester City, Carabao Cup

The Blues have lost their last two games and are winless in their last four Premier League outings, leading to growing criticism of the Stamford Bridge boss.

Pep Guardiola is not a manager that shies away from praising his rivals, and ahead of Wednesday's highly-anticipated showdown with Chelsea, the Spaniard did just that with Graham Potter.

The Stamford Bridge boss, who arrived from Brighton back in September after the controversial sacking of Thomas Tuchel, has come under heavy criticism lately due to a dip in form from the London giants.

Not only are the Blues winless in their last four Premier League fixtures, but Potter's men have also lost their last two English top-flight matches, being thrashed 4-1 by his former club Brighton before losing 1-0 at home to league leaders Arsenal.

As a result, Chelsea currently find themselves in seventh, five points outside of the top four, and have been leapfrogged by both Manchester United and Newcastle in the standings.

Potter has thus landed himself in the crosshairs of several disgruntled fans as the summer's highest spenders struggle to impress on the pitch. However, Pep, regarded by many as one of the greatest managers to have crossed the beautiful game, has issued words of wisdom to those unhappy supporters and to the Chelsea board.

With Manchester City preparing to host Sterling and Co. in the third round of the Carabao Cup, Guardiola both hailed the English as one of the best tacticians in the game and insisted that the Blues should afford their brilliant head coach some patience.

"If Chelsea accept my humble advice, give him time and he will do well," said Guardiola, as per the Evening Standard.

"They got good results but the way they play, when I saw the game against Brighton that they lost, I saw many things I remember from his period in Brighton. But he needs time, everybody needs time.

"No one has success from day one or two, I have a lot of admiration for his work. What he did at Brighton was beyond exceptional and I'm pretty sure with time he will do a good job, I don't have any doubts.

"He is one of the best managers, from my point of view, we have in this league."

Despite these kind words, it will do little to appease the unhappy fans. Potter enters this clash knowing how crucial this result will be. Graham must do everything to avoid a third consecutive defeat, but given the ongoing injury crisis at the club, this will be a difficult feat to achieve.