Chelsea will travel to face Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday. The Blues, who won their previous Premier League match against West Ham United, will hope to build on that victory. Here are the key things to watch for in this fixture.
1. Jorgensen Starting
Most teams prefer to use one goalkeeper for league matches and another for cup games. So far, Enzo Maresca has followed that approach at Chelsea. Robert Sánchez has been the league starter, while Filip Jorgensen has been the preferred choice for cup competitions.
However, against West Ham on Monday, Jorgensen started between the sticks. That wasn’t because he had suddenly become Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper, it was because Robert Sánchez had been consistently awful. Chelsea fans had been calling for him to be dropped permanently, and it took Maresca until February to make that decision.
But just because Sánchez is now the second-choice keeper, that doesn’t mean he should be starting cup games. He was dropped for a reason, his performances were damaging Chelsea every time he played. Allowing him to return to the starting XI for cup matches would send the message that there are no consequences for poor performances.