Robert Sánchez stats reveal why Chelsea keep faith despite costly errors

Robert Sánchez is once again at the centre of the debate at Chelsea after two costly-looking errors against Fulham, but the underlying numbers suggest the goalkeeper may contribute more than his high-profile mistakes imply.

Chelsea began the Xabi Alonso era with a 3-2 victory at Craven Cottage, yet Sánchez’s performance immediately revived questions over whether the Spaniard is good enough to remain the club’s number one.

Gary Neville went further, warning that Sánchez could “undermine everything Chelsea do.”

The statistics, however, paint a more complicated picture.

Chelsea were leading when Sánchez allowed Joshua King’s relatively tame effort to beat him at his near post.

His involvement in Fulham’s second goal was also questionable. Sánchez pushed Timothy Castagne’s effort back into danger, allowing Gonzalo García to capitalise and reduce Chelsea’s lead.

Chelsea ultimately survived, but the mistakes were familiar.

Sánchez has developed a reputation for combining excellent saves with avoidable errors since arriving from Brighton in 2023, and Neville believes that unpredictability could become a major problem for Alonso.

“For the first time in a while I really like the spine of Chelsea’s team,” Neville said.

But his assessment of the goalkeeper was far less positive: “He will undermine everything Chelsea do.”

The numbers suggest Sánchez’s reputation may actually be worse than his overall performances.

Last season, the goalkeeper recorded 1.7 prevented goals based on expected-goals data, meaning an average Premier League goalkeeper would have been expected to concede almost two more goals from the same shots.

Only five Premier League goalkeepers performed better by that measurement during the 2025/26 campaign.

It wasn't an isolated season either. The previous year, only three Premier League goalkeepers produced a better figure.

That provides an important counterargument to the criticism surrounding Sánchez.

His mistakes are highly visible, but his ability to make difficult saves appears to compensate for many of them across an entire season.

That does not excuse what happened at Craven Cottage.

The expected-goals model indicates Sánchez conceded approximately 0.86 goals more than expected against Fulham alone.

It was therefore a genuinely poor individual performance rather than simply a case of the goalkeeper receiving excessive criticism.

The broader data nevertheless suggests those performances are balanced by matches in which Sánchez saves Chelsea goals an average goalkeeper might concede.

There are other positives as well.

Sánchez performs particularly strongly when claiming high balls and generally ranks in the upper half of Premier League goalkeepers across the major metrics.

His long-range distribution is a notable weakness, falling below the league average.

None of the statistics establish Sánchez as an elite goalkeeper.

Chelsea could potentially improve the position, with the Spaniard trailing the likes of Gianluigi Donnarumma across several important metrics last season.

But the suggestion that Sánchez consistently costs Chelsea more points than he saves them isn't supported by the numbers presented here.

His situation is comparable to Nicolas Jackson’s Chelsea spell: the mistakes are memorable and can dominate perceptions, while the overall statistical output is considerably more productive.

For Alonso, the question may therefore be less about whether Sánchez is a capable Premier League goalkeeper and more about whether Chelsea are prepared to tolerate his volatility.

Alonso must decide whether Sánchez’s overall contribution outweighs the risk created by his individual errors.

With Chelsea seemingly unlikely to replace him before the transfer deadline, Sánchez should have the opportunity to prove that the underlying numbers are a better reflection of his ability than the mistakes which continue to dominate the headlines.