Enzo Maresca warned one Chelsea star will ‘let you down in big moments’

Troy Deeney says he is ‘still seriously worried’ about Robert Sanchez and believes the goalkeeper will continue letting Chelsea down in ‘big moments’ this coming season.

Sanchez beat off strong competition from Djordje Petrovic to establish himself as Enzo Maresca’s number one ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.

But a series of costly blunders prompted Maresca to drop Sanchez in favour of Filip Jorgensen midway through the season, only for the latter to hand the gloves back to the Spaniard with some less-than-convincing performances of his own.

As a result, the Blues turned to the transfer market for a potential upgrade between the sticks after finishing last term on a high – and AC Milan’s Mike Maignan had looked set for a transfer move to west London earlier this summer.

However, the Club World Cup winners were not prepared to cough up the required £20million to prise Maignan away from the San Siro and appears Sanchez will cling onto his spot as first-choice for the time being.

Instead, Chelsea have prioritised strengthening their attack across the transfer window, bringing in Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Joao Pedro and Jamie Gittens – a decision which Deeney feels could come back to bite Maresca’s side.

Discussing the state of play at Chelsea ahead of the side’s opening clash with Crystal Palace, the former Watford captain Deeney told talkSPORT: ‘I’m still seriously worried about Sanchez.

‘I know he had a wonderful Club World Cup. But if you see the goal he conceded against AC Milan, his positioning is all over the place. It’s a near-post shot and I think he should save it.

‘I think they’re in a real weird place with Sanchez because he’s shown you what he can do, but we’ve seen over the course of the body of his work that he’s going to let you down in big moments.

‘You talk about their defensive frailties and they have looked at improving that.

‘[Levi] Colwill being out is obviously massively disappointing, not only for Chelsea but England.’

According to Deeney, the return of Wesley Fofana could be a big plus for the Blues, as long as the defender manages to stave off any further injuries.

‘They have Fofana back and if he can stay fit, and again it’s a massive if, but in my opinion he’s one of the best centre-backs in world football, not just in the Premier League,’ Deeney added.

‘They do need to shore that up but you’d like to think with all the players they’ve got in front, the pace, the power, and the fact now that they don’t have Nicolas Jackson missing four one-on-ones a week, they should be okay.’

Sanchez showed glimpses of what he could bring to Chelsea with a string of encouraging displays at this summer’s Club World Cup in the United States.

Speaking after the side’s dominant 3-0 defeat of PSG in the final, the Spain international said the squad had shown the world just ‘how good we are and what we can do’.

‘I was talking to some of the boys [ahead of the game] and I said we’ve got a great chance to make history here and win,’ Sanchez told reporters.

‘We believed we were going to, but we couldn’t expect to win like this: 3-0, clean sheet, dominated the game, could’ve scored a couple more goals. It’s a dream come true.

‘It’s all we wanted. We have been away from home – away from our families – for a month, and we have been working hard. People said we had the easier path [to the final], but it wasn’t easy.

‘We worked hard and we deserved this win. In the final, we showed how good we are and what we can do.’

Sanchez added: ‘We have already shown the world, so what we have to do is keep it the same. We are only going to get better.

‘The boys are young, 21 years old, 22 years old. Imagine when these players are 24, 25, 26.

‘We are going to be a solid squad that wins a lot and does well. We’re going to do very well.’

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