It is finally time for Enzo Maresca to drop Robert Sanchez after the Spaniard’s latest blunder for Chelsea against Wolves. His annual culling is long overdue…and not just because we predicted it in August.
Chelsea earned three Premier League points on Monday night by beating Wolves 3-1 at Stamford Bridge and instead of talking about them getting back to winning ways and exploiting their opponents’ most glaring weakness, we are going to focus on Robert Lynch Sanchez.
The same weaknesses Sanchez has previously displayed were prevalent against Wolves. It should only be a matter of time until Filip Jorgensen gets the nod but you never do know with Chelsea; they have plenty of other options too.
That is almost exactly what Matt Stead said – except for the Blues’ opposition – in August and the point still stands.
Sanchez committed his fourth error leading to a goal this season on Monday night, failing to deal with a corner Matheus Cunha might well have been shooting from. He opted to catch instead of punch and the ball slipped out of his grasp for Matt Doherty to equalise in first-half stoppage-time.
Chelsea started fast as they often do and went ahead through Tosin Adarabioyo, who showed the sort of composure from close range that Nicolas Jackson wishes he had as Wolves conceded from a set-piece for the one millionth time in 2024/25.
Doherty’s equaliser came in Wolves’ best spell of the match by a mile and was another example of Chelsea dropping off and letting teams grow in confidence after dominating the opening 30 minutes.
Luckily for Sanchez, he had fellow Spaniard Marc Cucurella and Wolverhampton’s biggest fan Noni Madueke – who also netted from a corner – to thank for sparing him the embarrassment of costing Chelsea the win.
His fourth error leading to a goal puts him joint-second with Taylor Harwood-Bellis for that damning statistic. He is still one behind Ipswich Town goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, who has rightly been dropped by Kieran McKenna. It should not take a fifth c*ck-up for Maresca to be ruthless.
But when sidelining a player, you have to have confidence in the guy coming in. That player will be summer signing Filip Jorgensen, who has only played twice in the Premier League this season. He conceded a penalty as Ipswich won their first home match of the season (red flag) and didn’t keep a clean sheet at Southampton (bigger red flag). Taking that into account, we can understand Maresca being a tad reluctant.
But he was not the reason why an abject Chelsea lost at Portman Road and the Blues eventually scored four more than Southampton. He has also looked good in the Europa Conference League; Jorgensen made 11 saves in a 2-0 win at Heidenheim and made seven against Artsakh. Yes, that competition has a worse standard than the Europa League and obviously the Premier League, but he has three clean sheets in eight matches in that competition while Sanchez only has four in 20 in the Premier League.
The Spaniard got injured on matchday 16 in the league last season and did not play again when Mauricio Pochettino realised Djordje Petrovic was a better goalkeeper, and the year before it took until the 23rd game for Sanchez to lose his Brighton place to Jason Steele. Will it be matchday 22 in 24/25?
Jorgensen is five years younger than Sanchez and deserves a chance in Our League to prove he is better than Maresca’s No. 1 – who does have the best save percentage in the division, to be fair to him. Those errors, though…
On a more positive note, Trevoh Chalobah played the full 90 minutes, assisted Madueke’s goal and was named Player of the Match. Having been ostracised and forced to train with the kids before landing a summer loan to Crystal Palace, Chalobah is primed to play a huge role in the Chelsea defence in the second half of the season after being recalled.
Chelsea made up for their poor end to the opening 45 minutes with a very confident second period, earning a deserved victory in to lift them back into the top four.
It was their first Premier League win in 36 days as Wolves remain without a point in 2025, with their honeymoon period under Vitor Pereira now a distant memory amidst the January blues.
Meanwhile, midfield injuries are becoming a real pain for Maresca, who would have been pulling his hair out biting his nails when Moises Caicedo received treatment in the first half. He gave Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall a first Premier League start of the season against Wolves, which tells you everything about the bareness of his bones.
And it’s Manchester City away next for Chelsea. Only two points separate them now with Maresca’s men in fourth and the champions fifth. It’s not much better for Wolves, who host Arsenal a couple of hours earlier on Saturday.
With a trip to the Etihad just around the corner, we will find out if Enzo Maresca is happy to take advice from a 29-year-old Scot who gets paid to criticise footballers who earn his yearly salary in a day.
He didn’t listen in August; will he listen now?
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