Ahead of the Premier League clash with Brighton, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has confirmed that Filip Jorgensen is the club’s new number one goalkeeper. In his pre-match press conference, Maresa was asked about the team’s keeper situation and he stated that Jorgensen has been upgraded as the starter for Premier League matches, replacing Robert Sanchez.
Maresca said, as quoted on BBC.com:
"The Filip solution was also to give Robert some time to recover mentally and physically. The idea is not to go game-to-game. I spoke to Robert before West Ham. They know in this moment the situation."Enzo Maresca
This shows that Jorgensen doesn’t have an iron grip on the position but that he is the man for the moment and that Maresca doesn’t plan to switch back and forth during the run-in to end the season. Jorgensen started the key clash against West Ham in the Premier League and we expected him to start in the FA Cup against Brighton but instead it was Sanchez that was named to the starting XI.
Sanchez has had issues with mental mistakes this season especially when it comes to his distribution and Jorgensen is an upgrade in that category. The young Danish keeper is equally adept as Sanchez when it comes to shot stopping and the fact that he does not make simple mistakes is enough of a reason to keep him in the starting lineup. For every great saves that Sanchez makes he can ruin all of his good work with a poorly placed pass that puts him and the Chelsea defense under pressure.
The keeper situation at Chelsea has been a major cause for concern and is equally as pressing, if not more so, than the striker situation at the club. The Blues brought in Jorgensen from Villareal and Mike Penders from Genk over the summer but Penders is only 19 and is earmarked for the future.
They will have plenty of options to choose from internally this summer, including Djordje Petrovic who has been excellent on loan at Strasbourg. However the best option may be to opt for a true veteran that is world class or at least close to that category. The club has been reticent to spend big money on older players so we may find ourselves playing the keeper shuffle yet again in 2025-26.