For now, Mike Penders is Chelsea’s new number one. That means there’s a goalkeeper on the bench for the Blues.
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While Chelsea got an important win on Saturday against Everton, there was bad news too.
Goalkeeper Emi Martinez had a horrific collision with an attacker and ended up having surgery on a broken jaw. That meant young Mike Penders game into the game, and will now keep his place for the foreseeable future, starting on Saturday against Tottenham.
Dom Smith has written a piece for the Evening Standard looking at Penders and what fans can expect from the 21 year old.
Penders and TSL move up the chain
Mike Penders makes Premier League debut. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
As Penders steps up from number two to number one, so Teddy Sharman-Lowe goes from third choice to second. The academy keeper has had some good loan spells in the lower leagues, and looks set to get a Championship or European move after this season.
The question is whether TSL will play games like the Liverpool match in the EFL Cup next week. That would have been Penders’ match if Martinez was still fit – does it now go to the next man up, or does Alonso decide to keep the Belgian in there to accelerate the development of his relationship with the defence ahead of him? We suspect it will be the latter.
In other news…
Xabi Alonso confirmed on Saturday that Pep Chavarria would have tests on an injury he picked up in training before the game against Everton.
Former England defender Stuart Pearce was among the pundits impressed by Pender’s showing on Saturday.