Furious Maresca and terrified Stamford Bridge fans reach the end of their tether with this player | OneFootball

Chelsea fans and Enzo Maresca go home happy with the result today, but both parties can agree on something that was not pleasing in today’s game – the performance of Robert Sanchez.

The goalkeeper was so poor – his distribution, both short and long, was not good enough. He kept giving the ball away, and kept increasing the pressure on his own team, especially in the second half when the Blues were creaking a little and were desperate for some calm possession and some assurance from their goalkeeper.

Daily Mail reporter Kieran Gill noted that Maresca “vented to staff after Robert Sanchez gave the ball away for the umpteenth time.” And that was just in the first half… by the second period Maresca was apoplectic as the errors continued to flow.

The fans in the stands were murmuring and moaning every time their stopper came near the ball. That’s just not what you want to see or hear.  Their patience wore thing a year ago – most of them can’t believe Sanchez was restored to the first team rather than replaced in the summer.

Robert Sanchez in Chelsea’s win over Newcastle. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Sanchez puts his manager Enzo Maresca in a difficult position

Maresca has repeatedly defended the Spaniard even as outside pressure has increased through the last few weeks. We’d expect that stance to continue, but only because it would do nothing to help the situation were he to call out his first choice stopper.

The fact is that we’re not really sure that Filip Jorgensen would be any better as an alternative. Long term, we have no doubt that the sporting directors are making moves for a better number one – or at least looking closely at players already on our books to get our long term plan looking better.