Maresca confirms Jorgensen as Chelsea’s No. 1 goalkeeper

Enzo Maresca confirmed on Thursday that Filip Jorgensen has taken over as Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper, replacing Robert Sanchez as the club looks to regain momentum in the Premier League. 

The 27-year-old Spain international has struggled with form this season, making several costly errors, including a crucial mistake in last month’s 3-1 loss to Manchester City.

Denmark U-21 goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen started in Chelsea’s 2-1 Premier League victory over West Ham earlier this month, but Robert Sanchez returned between the posts for last week’s FA Cup loss to Brighton.

Maresca, whose team face Brighton again on Friday, confirmed at his pre-match press conference that Jorgensen, 22, is currently his first choice.

The Italian said his aim had been to give Sanchez “some time to recover mentally, physically”.

He added, “The idea is not to game by game change the keeper. In this moment, the last Premier League game against West Ham that we won was Filip… the FA Cup game was Robert, but our keeper in this moment is Filip.”

Chelsea were within two points of Premier League leaders Liverpool in mid-December, but their form has declined sharply since then. 

Despite the setback, Maresca remains confident that his fourth-placed side, still in contention for Champions League qualification, has made significant progress in his debut season at Stamford Bridge.

He said, “I don’t think what we have done can be cancelled or can be no good, because what we have done is there,” he said.

“Unfortunately we are out of both domestic cups but our journey in the Premier League has been fantastic until today, in the Conference (League) has been fantastic until today and we’re going to try to finish in the best way we can.”