Emiliano Martinez’s imminent signing is curtains on The Robert Sanchez Experience at Chelsea

It was a fool’s errand on Chelsea’s part to start a fourth season with Robert Sanchez as their starting keeper, and his dibbly-dobbly performance against Fulham in the season-opening 3-2 victory only went on to prove that point emphatically.

The message around the circles at Stamford Bridge was clear and evident: Robert Sanchez will begin the season in goal, until the young and highly-rated backup keeper Mike Penders will be ready to take that spot sometime during the course of the season. 

But his performance in the opening game against Fulham has pretty much made it clear that we could be seeing the end of the Robert Sanchez experience at Chelsea Football Club. Such was the atrocious nature of his showing that it made true on all the reasons why match-going Chelsea fans stopped trusting him in any capacity.

For Fulham’s opener, Sanchez not only left acres of space on his near post for Josh King to take aim, but allowed a relatively tame effort squirm straight past him for the Cottagers to equalise. For the second goal, he parried Timothee Castagne’s goalbound effort right at new signing Gonzalo Garcia, who nodded home to make it 3-2 to send a few flitters of anxiety in new coach Xabi Alonso.

It could have been even worse, with Sanchez almost gifting a third with his wayward positioning getting him in no man’s land, but fortunately for him, Antonee Robinson skewed his lob way wide off the target.

It is not only these errors that have made his place as Chelsea’s starting goalkeeper untenable. It is everything that he has done to reach this situation. Every missed pass, every time he dilly dallies on the ball, giving the opponent time to press him (as he did against Fulham, giving them a corner in the process), and his reckless positioning (he got sent off for his clumsy and reckless lunge on Bryan Mbeumo last season). All of these have added over the years, and have brought him to the point of no return.

Put simply, Sanchez has not been able to imbibe confidence and calm, not only to his fans, but also to his backline, leading to their inconsistency. Even in his good stretches of form, the general opinion about him was that he always had a mistake in him. And once a goalkeeper is classed with that tag, there is virtually no coming back from it.

The imminent signing of Emiliano Martinez from Aston Villa brings a goalkeeper who is no stranger to the big moments, having won the World Cup in 2022, making it to the Final in 2026, and also winning the Europa League this year. He will bring calm and confidence with his ability to command his box and backline, soothing the nerves of the entire team in the process.

While his typically bravado-fuelled keeping style will result in mistakes (he had 6 errors leading to a goal from the 23/24 to 25/26 season), he has comfortably had more good games where he has led his team to crucial victories. Martinez has shown the ability to not only play in hostile situations, but also save his teams in match-defining moments, something that Sanchez has not done in a Chelsea shirt.

Emiliano Martinez is a clear upgrade on Robert Sanchez, and his imminent signing is curtains on Chelsea’s ill-fated Robert Sanchez experience.