After Thibaut Courtois fell to an ankle injury on Friday, Willy Caballero had a chance to shine on the Premier League stage. His performance was not flawless, but he made some vital saves.
Willy Caballero made his Premier League debut for Chelsea on Saturday as he stepped in for the injured Thibaut Courtois. The former Manchester City man has plenty of top flight experience, but his last outing at this level was in May last year. Chelsea may have won 4-0, but the Argentine had to do a lot to keep a clean sheet.
The first half of Caballero’s performance was littered with seemingly nervy moments. He tried to come for crosses and high balls, before falling short. He flapped at several balls that could have led to a goal on another day.
Having said that, his display almost had an air of controlled chaos. He knew what he was doing. The issue was that it was all pretty risky.
Nonetheless, every fluffed clearance was met with some sort of reassured recovery. He even managed to tactically bring down Ezequiel Schelotto in the box, knowing full well that the view of referee Jonathan Moss was obscured.
The real highlights of his display, though, were a pair of saves – one in each half. With Brighton turning up the heat in search of a goal to half the deficit, Caballero produced a wonderful point-black save to deny Tomer Hemed. Hemed simply should have scored with his free header, but Caballero stuck out his left paw to prevent the bouncing ball from hitting the back of the net.
In the second half, with the game still 2-0 in the Blues’ favour, Caballero once again showed his quality. Schelotto found himself with just the goalkeeper to beat, but the Argentine made himself big to stop the shot. It was another chance that was harder to miss than to convert.
On the face of it, a 4-0 scoreline makes it seem like Chelsea had it all their own way. However, it was a nervy performance bookended by two pairs of quickfire goals. Against better opposition, the chances Chelsea conceded between minutes 6 and 77 would have been converted. A promising start would have faded into a tough battle for a point.
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Fortunately for Chelsea, their backup goalkeeper stepped up to the plate and kept the Blues in front. It might have looked slightly unorthodox, but Caballero’s chaos was controlled. Sort of.