Many Chelsea players will be welcoming a summer break after a hectic 2025/26 season, with one player surprisingly playing more minutes than Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.
The Chelsea side showed real signs of fatigue towards the end of the campaign, after going into the season without the break the majority of their rivals enjoyed.
Chelsea won the Club World Cup during the summer of 2025, a great moment for the Blues but one that certainly had an impact on their domestic and European ambitions.
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Robert Sanchez played more minutes for Chelsea than Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez this season
The performance levels of Caicedo dropped more than others. His first few months of the season saw him competing for the player of the campaign award.
While the Ecuador international and Fernandez seemed to play every single game, it was actually Robert Sanchez who played the most minutes for Chelsea in all competitions.
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Out of a maximum of 5,919, the Spaniard was on the pitch for 4,844 of them, nine more than Fernandez.
Caicedo featured for more than 4,600 minutes himself, with Joao Pedro, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella and Pedro Neto all clocking more than 4,000 themselves.
Surprisingly, Wesley Fofana managed more than 3,000 minutes, a feat he had not reached before at Chelsea following the magnitude of injury problems that have come his way.
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Sanchez’s rare dropping was critical in Chelsea’s Champions League exit
While Sanchez had the backing of whoever was in charge of the club for the majority of the season, the moment he wasn’t was crucial in Chelsea’s season.
Liam Rosenior instead decided to start Filip Jorgensen for the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 tie against PSG.
The Dane gave away a goal when the Blues were level at 2-2 in France, a moment which completely shifted the momentum of the tie.
Jorgensen has asked to leave the club this summer after it has proven he is not set to be the number one at Stamford Bridge, further clearing the pathway for Sanchez to remain a regular.
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