Chelsea saw off Panathinaikos pretty easily in the Conference League on Thursday night, playing a rotated team, leaving loads of players at home, and walking away with a comfortable victory.
But it’s easy to forget how tense things were in the early stages, and how easily the whole thing could have gone in a different direction. Speaking to Chelsea TV after the game, Enzo Maresca mentioned the big save from Filip Jorgensen in the first half as a decisive moment which altered the course of the match:
“Probably, if we concede there, the game is different. But he helped us, and also in the build up he was really good,” the manager noted when prompted to compliment the summer signings, whose opportunities have been limited since arriving from Villareal a few months ago.
You can see the Chelsea coach speaking in the clip embedded here:
Jorgensen takes a step forward – but will have to wait for bad results for big chance
Jorgensen did well with his chance, and Robert Sanchez has had a wobbly couple of games. In terms of the Swede hoping to get a first team chance he probably will never have been closer.
But there’s still a long way to go – Maresca continues to back Sanchez, and even if that’s mostly just bluster, there’s no way he’s going to shake things up in goal unless things get really bad. That will probably mean a run of bad results – with Sanchez at least partly at fault – before the coach makes decisive changes.
Lots of fans are ready to see a new option in goal – most were happy with Djorde Petrovic replacing Sanchez last season. But Jorgensen remains a pretty unknown quantity, and he will have to continue to impress in the cups if he ever wants a chance.
