Chelsea drew at home to Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon, but one player proved his quality with an impressive individual performance.
Chelsea went into the international break with a 1-1 draw against Forest in the Premier League. The result meant the Blues knew they would be occupying
fourth place in the division table for the next few weeks, with Chris Wood’s goal early in the second half putting the visitors ahead at Stamford Bridge.
However, Noni Madueke quickly equalised with his fifth goal of the season in all competitions.
Forest were down to 10 men after James Ward Prowse was sent off late on, but the sides eventually shared the points after a series of twists and turns in
stoppage time. Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez put in a much-needed performance against Forest after last week’s nightmare.
The 26-year-old made a few mistakes in last weekend’s league win over Brighton. Indeed, many Chelsea fans have argued that Sanchez should be left out of the starting line-up.
Blues head coach Enzo Maresca retained his first-choice goalkeeper for the Championship match against Forest and his player certainly lived up to that belief.
Sanchez could do nothing about Wood’s goal, but he made an incredible save to deny a late winner as 10-man Forest began to fight back.
The Chelsea goalkeeper first saved a close-range shot from Neco Williams and then Jota Silva late on.
Alan Shearer described Sanchez’s performance against Bournemouth last month as “superb.” Well, he produced another heroic display in goal for the Blues on Sunday.
As you can see above, Sanchez made a total of eight saves. It’s worth pointing out that some of these interventions were truly remarkable and seemed to be intended for the forest’s purpose.
Hopefully the Spanish goalkeeper can carry that confidence into the future, because when he’s in form he’s a great option between the posts.
He’s going to need to put together a really consistent run of games before the doubters are completely silenced, though.
