Robert Sanchez is back between the sticks in the high-powered clash between Chelsea and Arsenal, and you gullible Chelsea fans, hold on to your scarves. After being briefly displaced from his starting spot by Filip Jorgensen, Sanchez is back in Enzo Maresca’s good books. When you’re heading over to the Emirates, you want a set to wear safe in the knowledge that it’s reliable, and in goal, you want a solid set.
Maresca, who usually comes with a tactical tweak or two and always has a love for a good puzzle, confirmed that it will be Robert playing against Arsenal when he returns to action. It’s not so much when he drops an accidental cryptic football cliché about that; it’s when he drops a definitive statement such as that—no cryptic football cliché, just straight-up confirmation.
And that’s not the only dramatic turn of events taking place in the opposite locker room. Injuries have turned into a patchwork quilt for their squad, and Maresca tries to shuffle from one to the other faster than a circus act.
Robert Sanchez Returns—Why Now?
Prior to the season, Sanchez was Chelsea’s No. 1, but as Jorgensen got the taste of action, the Spaniard rarely got to appear. Football, as much as reality TV, loves its comeback stories, and after a decent performance in Chelsea’s 1-0 win at Leicester, the gloves are on again.
Maresca refused to tinker with the goalkeeper position; however, when asked whether he could be flexible, he admitted, ‘Sometimes you just have to be. Since half of your best players are in the treatment room, the staff could hardly describe it as flexible.
Chelsea’s Defensive Puzzle: Who’s In and Who’s Out?
For the Arsenal showdown, Chelsea will receive a facelift to their defense. Without their three absent outfield players, Reece James, Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana, stopping Arsenal’s attack will be no joke.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s midfield Swiss Army knife Cole Palmer came on off the bench for Thursday’s 1-0 win over Copenhagen. In football terms, he hasn’t scored in 10 games, which is essentially biblical in terms of a drought. One could say that no worse stage exists to end a scoring slump than against Arsenal.
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