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SATURDAY | JULY 19, 2025

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Chelsea’s Robert Sanchez (centre) celebrates with teammates after winning the Club World Cup. – REUTERSPIC

Chelsea can forget about challenging for the title until two key issues are fixed Work in progress progress

Ű BY AMOS MURPHY

before the Club World Cup, but time constraints meant they couldn’t get the deal over the line. Maresca instead opted to go with Sanchez as his No.1 for the tournament, with the ex Brighton star performing well in the States. But according to former Chelsea midfielder Jon Obi-Mikel, the west Londoners should be prioritising a new goalkeeper this year. “I’m still not convinced with Sanchez at all. I still believe we need a top, top goalkeeper,” Obi Mikel told DAZN . “Sanchez a had brilliant game (against PSG) but going into new season, with the Premier League and Champions League, you still need a top goalkeeper. “The Club World Cup win should give him good confidence ahead of the new season and hopefully we see a new Sanchez next season. “But healthy competition is important and we’ve seen that with the signing of Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.” There’s every chance Chelsea look to revive a deal for Maignan in the coming weeks and if they do, it could give them a better shot at Premier League glory, but there would still be at least one more problem to fix. That being the striker position, where Maresca will likely have to work out which one of Delap, Pedro and Nicolas Jackson is his go-to guy for the season. All will have a role to play throughout the campaign, but it’s unlikely they’d win the League by floating between the three. That’s not to say Chelsea can’t win the title. There’s every chance they could. But the Club World Cup win should be considered a step in the right direction, not the end game as far as Chelsea’s development is concerned. – Express Newspapers

situation. Notwithstanding the fact Chelsea’s goalkeeper department is as crowded as a shopping centre on Christmas Eve, there are still concerns over who their No. 1 shot-stopper actually is. At the start of last season, Chelsea had eight recognised goalkeepers on their books. That includes wonderkid Mike Penders, who put pen to paper on a move last year, but stuck around at Belgian side Genk for the 2024/25 campaign. Penders looks as if he’s going to have to wait longer for a shot in the Chelsea first team, given the 19-year-old looks set to be sent out on loan for the upcoming season. That’s according to Italian sports influencer Fabrizio Romano, who states Penders will join Chelsea’s sister club, Strasbourg, in France. Chelsea, according to

T HERE’S a feel-good factor with Chelsea at the moment, and it’s come somewhat out of nowhere. It isn’t unreasonable to suggest that Chelsea missed out on Champions League qualification, Enzo Maresca might’ve found himself out of a job this year, such has been the west Londoners’ approach to managers in the past. Instead, with a return to Europe’s biggest stage confirmed, as well as two pieces of silverware having been added to the cabinet, life is pretty good for Maresca right now. So much so, on the back of their surprise victory against Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final, Chelsea are being touted as potential title contenders for the 2025/26 Premier League. Ex-Inter Milan and Juventus striker Christian Vieri agrees, with the Italian having told Gazzetta dello Sport : “For me, Chelsea will win the Premier League next season and be a contender for the Champions League.” A bold claim, not least because Chelsea ended the 2024/25 campaign a whopping 15 points behind eventual champions Liverpool. But also because the capital club

Romano, view Penders as a product for the future and are looking to assess how he performs in a top European division. Robert Sanchez kept goal for Chelsea during the Club World Cup, but had things worked out differently,

there’s every chance he’d have been forced to make way for Mike Maignan. T h e

still have plenty of work to do before they should be

Packed Open leaderboard

- Story on page 28 page

Frenchman h a d reportedly come close to a move

considered as g e n u i n e contenders. First of all, the goalkeeper

Maresca. – REUTERSPIC

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