Jersey numbers are an important part of football, icons have blazed their trails all while adorned by a familiar number on their back. R9 rolls off the tongue far better than R44 after all. For some clubs steeped in history they won’t have had just one player wearing a particular number which is why in this, we’ll be looking at the best Chelsea players to ever take on the number 1 jersey, often reserved for goalkeepers.
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Best Chelsea Players to Wear the Number One Jersey – All Time
Jim Molyneux
Jim Molyneux was a goalkeeper at Chelsea for over a decade and was part of the side that got to the 1915 FA Cup Final while he was wearing the number one jersey. He stayed with the team for 13 years with a recorded 239 appearances and an impressive haul of 77 clean sheets. Leading the team to a final is a big bonus to his legacy and helps him edge out some of the competition.
Dave Beasant
Dave Beasant’s time with the Blues was relatively short but he had some very high peaks. A managerial change and injury cut his time short eventually but not before he recorded one of the most impressive campaigns ever for a number one. In the 1989/90 league competition, he kept 14 clean sheets in 38 appearances.
Bill Robertson
Bill Robertson was called up from what is now known as Cobham for the 1950/51 season and remained their first-choice goalkeeper until 1960 when he moved on to Leyton Orient. He totalled over 200 league appearances for his side and kept 40 clean sheets, including one on his debut against Liverpool. Keeping the gloves for a decade is a tough ask but Robertson pulled it off, even if he only got the physical #1 towards the end of his stint
Peter Bonetti
Club icon Peter Bonetti adorned the number one on his back for many years. He went on to have a legendary career, making the third most appearances in team history and setting then-records for most clean sheets in a campaign as his 16 in 39 record stood until the year 2000, almost 40 years after he set it.
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Bonetti’s consistency was second to none, he had eight different league runs where he kept at least 10 clean sheets, a remarkable level of consistency that has seen him become one of the best ever in his position, and for this jersey number.
Ed de Goey
As previously mentioned, the record for most clean sheets in the league for Chelsea was long-held by Bonetti with 16. That was until it was broken during the 1999/2000 campaign by none other than Ed de Goey who did it with two less appearances.
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De Goey is another one who had a shorter time with the team but he was an impactful player and deserves to be remembered as a key part of the Blues and their rise to prominence just before the arrival of Roman Abramovich.
Petr Cech
Yeah he was always going to be here. There’s no best ever discussions that take place in the radius of Cech that he isn’t one of the most obvious choices for. He is not only the best goalkeeper in Chelsea history, but he is also the greatest player, by far, to hold down the number one jersey.
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He smashed all previously mentioned records and monopolised the top five spots for most league clean sheets in a single season. His 24 in 2004/05 will likely never be beaten but his 19 in 2008/09, 18 in 2005/06, and 17 in 2009/10 are impressive tallies that hold the top four entries in the record books.
He boasts being the wall behind the defence that let in just 15 goals in an entire Premier League campaign, a record that is unlikely to be beaten anytime soon. When it comes to the best Chelsea players it’s impossible not to bring up the legendary Czech.