Chelsea have shuffled their goalkeepers around since jettisoning Kepa Arrizabalaga to Real Madrid on loan last season after signing Brighton’s underwhelming Robert Sanchez – not even starting caliber – to replace Kepa, one of the best goalkeepers in Europe during the 2022/23 season.
Sanchez was predictably a significant downgrade, and while Kepa has returned to Chelsea after an ill-fated loan to Real Madrid due to the emergence of phenom Andriy Lunin, it looks like the Blues are just going to send Kepa packing again.
On the bright side, Chelsea have signed a better goalkeeper than Sanchez this summer, landing Filip Jorgensen from Villarreal. Jorgensen is both younger than Sanchez and had a better save percentage than the Spaniard in the 2023/24 season.
Frustratingly, new manager Enzo Maresca, who has done little to reassure Chelsea fans that he is anything but a further downgrade on Mauricio Pochettino, isn’t reacting to the fact that Jorgensen is better.
Maresca told reporters that his plan for the 2024/25 season, as of right now, is to continue starting the mistake-prone Sanchez as the Chelsea No. 1 while only utilizing Jorgensen as the starter in cup competitions, whether that is the Conference League or FA Cup.
Jorgensen can help Chelsea greatly in the cups, but he can also help Chelsea even more as a regular in the Premier League so he can help the Blues get back to a bigger European cup – no offense to the recently invented Conference League.
Maresca said, via Ben Jacobs, “This is the plan in this moment, but the plan can change. I’ve said many times, I judge the players on the level [they are playing at]. So if the level continues to be the same then probably Robert will be Premier League and Filip in the Conference League or the cups that we have. But in the end, it is just about performance.”
Nobody should be surprised if Jorgensen overtakes Sanchez sooner rather than later and Maresca is forced to change this plan. But Chelsea fans are likely concerned that Maresca thinks that even now, Sanchez’s level is above Jorgensen’s.
It isn’t. It never has been, and it wasn’t even last season when Jorgensen was in LaLiga. Jorgensen is the better goalkeepers, but, unfortunately for Chelsea fans, it looks like they’ll have to sit through more of Sanchez floundering before Maresca figures that out – if he does at all.
