The ease with which Chelsea had brushed aside their first three Conference League group stage opponents had not been of much use to Filip Jorgensen in his quest to usurp Robert Sanchez as the Blues’s No1.
Signed from Villarreal for around £20million last summer, in different circumstances Jorgensen may before now have been putting genuine pressure on Sanchez’s shirt amid the Spaniard’s prolonged run of shaky Premier League form.
Thursday night’s meeting with Heidenheim, however, was different. The Bundesliga side presented easily Chelsea’s stiffest examination in the competition yet and were well in the contest until Mykhailo Mudryk’s clinching second goal four minutes from time.
“When I saw he got through I tried to go out a bit and make the goal a bit smaller, make me bigger,” he explained afterwards. Textbook, logical stuff, but in contrast with Sanchez, whose decision-making in when to come off his line has been an obvious flaw this season, playing a part in goals that cost Chelsea points at Old Trafford and Anfield.
Chelsea’s hierarchy insist they retain full belief in Sanchez and that there will be no January move for a new goalkeeper.
