Penalty homework pays off for Robert Sánchez

09/16/2024 01:09 AM

Saving the day

Robert Sánchez may not be goalkeeper number one in everyone's mind, but he put in some tremendous work to keep Chelsea's sheet clean this weekend, including (but certainly not limited to) an excellent penalty save from Bournemouth's £40m striker, Evanilson.

Evanilson may be new to the league, arriving from FC Porto this summer, but that didn't stop Sánchez from doing the homework on him prior to the game.

"We always study the opponents. I've been looking at him. I can see he changes when the keeper dives early. So I held, and I knew if I stayed where I was he was going to put it there, so it was a good decision and a good save. It's the closest thing you can get to scoring a goal as a keeper."

-Robert Sánchez; source: Chelsea FC

Big Bob, doing whatever the opposite of "fail to prepare, prepare to fail" may be!

(This is the second penalty he's saved for us, after also doing so against Bruno Fernandes and Manchester United last season — when he also waited patiently.)