Robert Sanchez’s comments after Palace draw suggest Chelsea will find 2025/26 season difficult
Robert Sanchez will be pleased with his contribution to Chelsea’s draw versus Crystal Palace on the Premier League opening weekend.
Sanchez would have been criticised for Eberechi Eze’s free-kick goal, but thankfully for him, it was disallowed for Marc Guehi’s encroachment on the Blues’ wall.
The Chelsea defence kept a clean sheet against a strong Palace team; the Blues’ attack will instead concern Enzo Maresca.
The goalkeeper spoke about the team’s performance shortly after the final whistle and made an interesting comment about “fatigue” that will worry supporters.
Robert Sanchez says Chelsea players ‘feel the fatigue’ already
Sanchez first explained that Chelsea “played well” against Palace, albeit they found it difficult to bypass the visitors’ resolute midfield at Stamford Bridge.
“Obviously not the result we wanted, but I think the boys played well,” he said to Sky Sports. “The boys created the chances, and at the end of the day, it is football. We take the clean sheet and we move on to the next one.
“We had two weeks of a quick pre-season, and we got some injuries, but the boys showed up and we kept the clean sheet.
“We have quality on the ball. It was hard to find Moises [Caicedo] and Enzo [Fernandez] with the ball because Crystal Palace were holding a lot in midfield and with the dry pitch as well.”
While those were fair comments from Sanchez, his next answer will concern Chelsea fans regarding the team’s prospects in the 2025/26 season.
“It was easy to come back [to training], but we feel the fatigue that we didn’t have a long time to recover, but it is football, and you just have to take care of your body and not do too much,” he added.
Sanchez was referring to the Blues having much less time off over the summer than every other Premier League team because of their participation in the Club World Cup.
And if the Chelsea players are already “feeling the fatigue,” it’s hard to envisage them keeping up with Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester City in a 10-month-long Premier League title race.
Robert Sanchez on Eberechi Eze’s disallowed goal vs Chelsea
The biggest moment in Chelsea’s draw against Palace was Eze’s powerful free-kick, which was controversially disallowed.
Most people, including Sanchez, assumed that the referee overturned his decision because Marc Guehi had fouled Moises Caicedo.
The goalkeeper said, “Moises gets pushed into the gap, and that’s why I couldn’t see at all, and the ball goes over my head, so that’s why it has to be a foul, 100%.”
But that was not the real reason why Eze’s goal did not count. Instead, it was disallowed because Guehi came within a metre of the Chelsea wall.
from Chelsea FC Latest News & Club Updates | The Chelsea Chronicle https://ift.tt/NaED0oZ
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