It probably didn’t happen exactly how he might have imagined it, but young Mike Penders made his Premier League debut over the weekend when he replaced the stricken Emiliano Martínez in the second half of Chelsea’s game against Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium. The veteran goalkeeper, two-time recipient of the Yashin Trophy, suffered a fractured jaw and had to be rushed to hospital. No pressure, kid!
Penders did get a few extra minutes to warm up as Martínez received treatment, but he was thrown straight into the action as the home side tried to get back on level terms. Thankfully, the youngster managed to complete the job that Emi started and keep a rare clean sheet for the Blues — making a couple impressive plays in the process in commanding his area, but also fumbling the ball once and getting knocked over on a set piece once as well. That’s Premier League football for ya!
Afterwards on social media, Penders called it a “very proud moment” to have made his Premier League debut (while also sending well-wishes to Martínez), while the official Chelsea website confirmed that the 21-year-old in fact became our youngest ever goalkeeper in the competition, beating Lenny Pidgeley 21-year-old record.
In this household, Pidgeley’s famous for being the first player always released at the start of any Chelsea save in CM 01/02. In real life, he did get to play for the Blues a couple times before leaving in 2006, including on the final day of the 2004-05 season, when José Mourinho subbed him on for the final few minutes of our last match of the season. He’d retire some dozen years later, after a decent career in the lower leagues.
Presumably, a slightly different fate awaits Penders, who’s now set to start our next game, against Spurs at the Bridge. No pressure, kid!
In fact, barring any unforeseen drama, Penders is thus set to become our youngest ever starting goalkeeper in the Premier League, beating the record of none other that than Petr Čech, who was 22 years and 87 days old when he started against Manchester United on the first day of the aforementioned 2004-05 season. Penders will be almost exactly a year Čech’s junior at 21 years, 85 days on Saturday.
Chelsea were not quite ready to hand the keys to Penders in the summer; now he has to step in anyway. Čech did not let go of his spot for ten years after his first start. No pressure, kid!