Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek says manager Graham Potter has deserved from the players after victory over Leeds.

Loftus-Cheek's words back up Potter's insistence that he has the support of his players, even if faith maybe fading in other quarters.

Potter has also been adamant that talk means little and it is actions that count, making their dogged performance and result in edging out Leeds more significant.

Loftus-Cheek said: "We definitely owe it to the manager. He is obviously a fantastic manager, no can argue against that after what he has done with Brighton and other things.

"It is up to us as well. We have massive respect for the manager, the way he has been sitting in front of the media with us in this poor form. And he has stuck up for us players.

"So we owe it to the manager to perform as best as we can on the pitch and turn things around.

"It is obviously not nice to hear all the criticism coming our way at Chelsea to the manager, to the players. We had the poor run, so of course you are going to get that especially at Chelsea.

"A team like Chelsea, we can't accept mediocrity. We understand we have been mediocre in this recent run, and we are not just accepting it.

"It might look like that from the outside, but that is not the case. We are hurting from the losses and the draws, because it is not in us as Chelsea players and we are fighting our hardest to turn it around."

The win against Leeds was just Chelsea's second in 12 games during 2023 and they now face a huge Champions League last-16 second leg against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday which they will begin 1-0 down.

Loftus-Cheek said: "We may look back at this win as a turning point in weeks to come. You never know. We have got this win, and then if we win against Dortmund and then keep winning…

"We have the quality and the players and the manager to do that. We have just had a poor run of form. We don't expect to stay in that poor run of form, but to stick together and come through it."

Chelsea's performance in Dortmund was perhaps their best of this calendar year despite the final result.

Their two group stage wins against AC Milan might also be among the standout displays of this season, albeit one not exactly containing many of them.

And they qualified for the knockout stages with relative comfort with a game to spare despite losing their opener at Dinamo Zagreb in what proved to be Thomas Tuchel's final game.

Loftus-Cheek added: "It might be a mental thing, the difference in the way we have performed in the Champions League. You make that change from the Premier League and it is a complete shift in your mind.

"And I think sometimes us players playing for Chelsea when the pressure is on in these big games in the Champions League, we always seem to rise to it.

"We obviously have a big game coming up against Dortmund here this week, and we expect to rise to that challenge.

"Anything can happen in the Champions League and we definitely think we can on Tuesday."