First there was Djordje Petrovic, then Filip Jorgensen. Now there is Mike Penders.
Robert Sanchez has always been comfortable with a bit of competition to start games in goal for Chelsea.
Since joining from Brighton and Hove Albion for a fee in the region of £25million in 2023, Sanchez has had to work for his place. Things have not always gone smoothly, but his 111 appearances for the club show that he is the one who regularly comes out on top.
However, perhaps Penders provides his biggest challenge yet, certainly for the long term.
The highly-rated 21-year-old is going to be part of the Chelsea senior squad for the first time this season. There is a gap that needs filling. Petrovic was sold to Bournemouth for £25million last July, and Jorgensen has been given permission to leave this summer. A loan to Strasbourg, Chelsea’s sister club in France, is emerging as a serious option.
Penders was bought from Genk in his native Belgium in 2024 but stayed there for one more year and was then loaned to Strasbourg for 2025-26.
For quite a while now, Penders has been labelled the ‘next Thibaut Courtois’ in his homeland. Courtois also started his professional career at Genk and went on to thrive for four years at Stamford Bridge (after three seasons on loan at Atletico Madrid) before joining Real Madrid in 2018, where he is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
New Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has yet to confirm publicly which one of Sanchez or Penders is going to be first choice. Both played 45 minutes in the 1-0 friendly defeat by Juventus in Hong Kong in midweek and Sanchez was given the full 90 against Milan in Jakarta on Saturday, keeping the team’s first clean sheet of their pre-season tour in a 3-0 win. Instead of being worried about the situation, Sanchez is actually delighted Penders is now officially part of the group.
“Mike is a great young goalie and had a great season at Strasbourg last year,” Sanchez says. “We had him (in the squad) at the FIFA Club World Cup last year — he was there with us. I think it is great for him to come here. It is great competition. He has massive potential. I think he is going to be a great ‘keeper in the future, massive.
Summer 2024 buy Penders is now part of the squad at Chelsea (May James/AFP via Getty Images)
“What are his qualities? He is a tall guy, big. A massive, massive guy. He is 6ft 6in, 6ft 7in (200cm). He dominates the area well and is very calm. He just has a good presence to be around and is a top guy as well.”
Instead of being concerned or alarmed about the threat Penders poses to his place in the team, Sanchez believes it is exactly what he and Chelsea need. Asked if a big club such as the west Londoners have to have two top goalkeepers, Sanchez replies: “Absolutely, you always do, because you never know what will happen to the first-choice ‘keeper; if he is going to get injured or if he is going to go through a rough period. So you need someone, another choice to cover and push each other to elevate your level.
“If you do not have someone that is pushing you every day, you get lazy, and then the performance drops. I think it is always good to have one or two people pushing you every day.”
Sanchez had his best spell in a Chelsea shirt in 2025-26 during the first half of the campaign. Many of the club’s fans, who constantly criticised him because of mistakes he made in the past, were full of praise. He was being regarded as a possible contender for the club’s men’s player of the season award, which is voted for by supporters.
But a downturn in form coincided with head coach Enzo Maresca leaving at the start of the new year and Liam Rosenior taking his place.
A disappointing display during a 2-1 defeat at Arsenal in March led Rosenior to drop him for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie away to Paris Saint-Germain. Jorgensen played instead and conceded five goals, being particularly at fault for the third when the scoreline was 2-2 on 74 minutes.
Rosenior was soon sacked, after just three months in charge. Alonso was hired as his permanent replacement in May, and it is pretty evident that Sanchez is enjoying working with the former Spain midfielder already.
“I feel amazing,” his 28-year-old countryman says. “Xabi has given me all the confidence in the world. He is allowing me to perform. I know what he wants me to do. He understands the strengths of every individual. He understands my strengths. He is going to allow me to do what I am best at this season.
“He has brought a different attitude, a lot of calm, into the squad. He is a really calm person. He brings that as a player because he used to play. I like his idea of football. I don’t want to talk too much about it, but I like what he brings to the club and the staff. Everyone that has come is brilliant as well. I have a good feeling.”
Pressed further on what Alonso is doing with him that he likes so much, Sanchez explains: “It is the simplification of things. I have already played a lot of games in the Premier League, and people know what I am good at or not. He is allowing me to do what I do best, and that means my confidence is going to be boosted and I am going to play better and better. That is what is great about him.
“I have just celebrated three years with the club, and played about 110 games for Chelsea now. I think I have always felt I am No 1 here. I went into the Club World Cup (which Chelsea won) and performed well. The season after, the whole team was full of confidence, including myself, and we went for it. We started amazing. Obviously what happened at the club happened. But the boys are really positive about the new people coming into the club. That is football, sometimes it is what it is.”
Alonso has been put in charge of Chelsea this season (David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)
Chelsea’s first Premier League match of the 2026-27 campaign, at neighbours Fulham, is just over two weeks away, and it is easy to read too much into pre-season results as a sign of what is to come. They also lost to London rivals Tottenham in a warm-up game four days before facing Juventus, having had to come from behind to beat A-League side Western Sydney Wanderers 6-4 in the tour’s opening fixture. Saturday’s victory over Milan was a welcome one.
But players are at different levels of fitness, due to some reporting back later because of their involvement in the World Cup. Reece James, Enzo Fernandez, Malo Gusto, club-record £117million signing Morgan Rogers and another new arrival, Valentin Barco, start their pre-season tomorrow (Monday).
Chelsea’s disappointing 10th-placed finish last season means there is no European football to worry about in 2026-27. Sanchez is confident about what lies ahead.
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“I think this year is a positive,” he says. “It can be a good thing that we do not have a European tournament, because we can focus on the league. It is good for us as a team and as a squad because we get that time, one game a week, and I have a feeling we can do great things this year.
“We have a new manager, and we are still trying to understand his game plan, what he wants from us. The most important thing (in pre-season) is everyone is getting minutes and putting in a good effort. The boys have done that.
“He (Alonso) is not rushing anything. He is checking every game, every area we are doing, and we are slowly integrating new things. Day by day, we are learning more, and we are hopefully getting better game by game.”
