Robert Sanchez gets latest Chelsea redemption as Liam Rosenior hails character after mistakes | OneFootball

Blues goalkeeper produced key save against Brentford following Arsenal errors

Robert Sanchez is making a habit of bouncing straight back from adversity.

At times last season, the Chelsea goalkeeper would produce a couple of error-prone performances in succession, and supporters would insist he is simply not good enough to occupy the No1 shirt.

There was one stage when he was even dropped in favour of Filip Jorgensen. But Sanchez kept coming out swinging, with his finest moments in a Chelsea shirt coming during the Club World Cup triumph last summer when he won the FIFA Golden Glove award as best goalkeeper at the tournament.

Brentford manager Keith Andrews was left lamenting his side’s missed chances after a game he felt had been level. He was right, in a sense, to deem Chelsea’s 2-0 victory a more comfortable-looking scoreline than the balance of play had actually felt - but the Blues earned a first Premier League win under Liam Rosenior and just their fifth home league clean sheet of the season.

Sanchez made a brilliant save to deny Kevin Schade on Saturday

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Sanchez deserved a decent portion of the praise, showing his worth as first-choice goalkeeper in timely fashion, just three days after two blunders had helped Arsenal to a 3-2 lead at the halfway point in the two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final.

Against the Gunners, Sanchez had come for a Declan Rice corner and got nowhere near it, allowing Ben White free rein to head home the opener. Later, a poor low cross from White squirmed inexplicably through Sanchez’s grasp and afforded Viktor Gyokeres a goal drought-ending tap-in.

Yet late in the Arsenal game, Sanchez made a simply world-class stop to deny Mikel Merino’s sweetly-struck volley, the goalkeeper’s leg denying his Spanish compatriot a goal that would have ended almost all hope of Chelsea reaching March’s cup final.

The Sanchez that returned to the Bridge against Brentford was the decisive and resolute version who had so stunned Merino when he was convinced he had scored.

The 28-year-old made a fine first-half save to prevent an own goal from the otherwise imperious Tosin Adarabioyo, and then after the interval when Mathias Jensen put Kevin Schade through on goal, the German had all the time in the world to curl past Sanchez - but the goalkeeper clung to his clean-sheet by sticking out a leg and deflected the effort wide.

Rosenior had spoken after the Arsenal match about his goalkeeper’s glaring mistakes. His admission that he’d told Sanchez beforehand that any individual mistake would be the team’s fault rather than the Spaniard’s was supposed to sound reassuring but instead just painted a picture of the head coach having little trust in his No1 not to muck up.

Rosenior was trying to instil a collective ownership of mistakes, though, not unsettle his goalkeeper. He lauded his shot-stopper for collecting crosses and relieving pressure, not to mention saving two certain goals.

Through good moments and bad, Chelsea fans have become accustomed to Sanchez’s ability to distribute with remarkable accuracy whether kicking from the ground or from his hands to instigate a swift counter-attack. His all-round performance against Brentford delighted Rosenior.

“He was outstanding today,” Sanchez’s head coach said. “He was outstanding in his distribution - a couple of fantastic long passes to our wide players - in terms of his command of the box, in terms of the saves that we needed him to make.

“It was a fantastic performance. It doesn't surprise me.”

Rosenior and Sanchez first met when the goalkeeper was 16 years old and just breaking through at Brighton and Rosenior had joined the Seagulls from Hull in what would prove the final move of his playing career.

“I've known Rob for a long time,” he said. “He's a very, very resilient lad.”