Chelsea players had grown tired of Graham Potter towards the end of his tenure at Stamford Bridge with the results failing to pick up over recent weeks.
Who is to blame at Chelsea?
Saturday offered up another disappointing afternoon of football at Stamford Bridge as the Blues lost to Aston Villa who leapfrogged them in the table.
However, perhaps more concerning is where Chelsea ended up in the table on the back of the defeat with the Blues now slumped down in 11th spot.
But since arriving at Stamford Bridge, Potter has been handed a difficult task in managing a side who have spent around £600m on players this season alone.
Despite claims suggesting the Blues were going to give Potter the time needed to turn around their struggles, on Sunday the decision was made to sack him.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Fabrizio Romano has claimed a number of players had grown tired of the 47-year-old in the dugout:
(1:45) "So I'm told it was not an easy moment for them to communicate with Potter on the human side. But this is football, and so they told him that he was out then the official statement.
"But let me clarify that was never guaranteed for Graham Potter to stay after the Aston Villa game. We had many rumours during the day. But from what I understand, already yesterday night [Saturday], Chelsea had in their mind to fire Graham Potter because they wanted to give a different kind of idea also to the players.
"They knew that some of the players were not happy at all with the situation with Graham Potter. And so this is another reason why Chelsea fired Graham Potter, of course, the results, of course, the impact was not excellent. But also some of the players were not so happy."
Were Chelsea right to sack Potter?
Since arriving in west London earlier in the campaign, Potter has now overseen 31 games across all competitions where his side have provided a return of 12 victories, eight draws and 11 defeats (via Transfermarkt).
Looking back on their results, the defeats have mainly come against sides who are battling at the top end of the table but there are some concerning losses against the likes of Southampton at home.
However, the amount of money Todd Boehly has spent over the course of the season will mean the expectations will be sky-high for the Blues.
With this in mind, it is unlikely to matter who Chelsea play as there will be an expectation for them to be fighting for the title given the figures which have been spent.
It is difficult to deny the results have been largely underwhelming under Potter, however, sacking him at this stage of the season may not provide much benefit unless they can bring in someone like Julian Nagelsmann.
Tottenham Hotspur are already finding it difficult to find an appointment to replace Antonio Conte with the likes of Nagelsmann said to be waiting until the summer to assess their options.
Chelsea have invested massively since Boehly's arrival and there is certainly an argument for Potter being handed a squad so big that it was incredibly challenging to manage and get the best out of the players.
On the other hand, having come from Brighton & Hove Albion, there will have always been the question to whether Potter would have the ability to handle the egos of players at clubs the size of Chelsea.