Chelsea seem to be devoid of any sort of confidence at the moment as they continue to slide down the Premier League table.
Indeed, Chelsea are struggling right now, and speaking on the Kelly and Wrighty Show, Ian Wright has singled out one player for criticism.
Robert Sanchez has made a number of mistakes this season, and Wright believes the £25m man is a problem at Chelsea.
Sanchez has been heavily criticised this term, and according to the pundit, the Spaniard is having a negative affect on the rest of his teammates too.
Wright says that Chelsea’s players aren’t confident when Sanchez is in goal, claiming that his presence scares a number of his teammates.
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Robert Sanchez is scaring his Chelsea teammates
Wright spoke about Sanchez’s presence at Chelsea.
The pundit says that he doesn’t think Chelsea will make the Champions League next season at this point, claiming that there’s no way Chelsea’s players can be confident in any game when Sanchez is on the pitch.
“There’s no way you can be confident playing in front of that goalkeeper, there’s no way I can see any scenario where Chelsea will do it because of this. If I’m Newcastle, Bournemouth or Brighton, this is the best chance you will have, because I don’t think Chelsea will make it,” Wright said.
“You have a goalkeeper you’re scared of, you don’t know if he’ll let one in or make a mistake. Then you have strikers who aren’t scoring. If you let in a goal you instantly think you’re not winning because he could make another mistake and he might miss another chance, it just demoralises everybody with the goalkeeper.”
Robert Sanchez compared to Kepa Arrizabalaga
Sanchez is having a terrible time of it at Stamford Bridge, and the frustrating thing is that Chelsea have a goalkeeper on their books who’s performing much better in the same league.
Indeed, Kepa Arrizabalaga is enjoying something of a career resurgence at Bournemouth right now.
Kepa has been solid as Bournemouth have impressed, and, as Wright says, The Cherries are now contenders for Chelsea’s Champions League place.
The stats show how Kepa has been better than Sanchez this season.
| Kepa Arrizabalaga | Robert Sanchez | |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | Games | 23 |
| 29 | Goals conceded | 28 |
| 5 | Clean sheets | 5 |
| 23% | Clean sheet percentage | 22% |
| 72.4% | Save percentage | 73.3% |
| 1 | Errors leading to goals | 5 |
Kepa is keeping clean sheets at a better rate than Sanchez, and he’s making fewer errors, and that’s without hundreds of millions of pounds worth of defensive talent ahead of him.
Chelsea need to move on from Sanchez as their number one, and as strange as it sounds, perhaps their best move forwards is to go backwards and reinstate Kepa as their first-choice goalkeeper.
Kepa is set to return to Chelsea at the end of the season.
Kepa has received a lot of stick at Chelsea over the years, but, surely, he’s a better option than Sanchez at this point.
