Mike Penders got to his Premier League debut the hardest way a goalkeeper can. He came on in the 75th minute at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday, after Chelsea’s No. 1 was stretchered off, and finished the game with the ball spilled once at a cross and the sheet still clean.
Within hours, that one appearance had become a job description. Chelsea confirmed that Emiliano Martinez had come through a “successful” operation on his jaw, broken when he came out in the 67th minute to punch a free kick clear and ran into Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite. The 34-year-old Argentine told supporters from his hospital bed that he will be “back in a few weeks.”
Chelsea won the match 2-0, both goals from Pedro Neto, for a first clean sheet of the Premier League season. Head coach Xabi Alonso framed Martinez’s injury carefully, saying the goalkeeper had suffered a concussion as well as the jaw fracture and that further checks would decide the timeline. Goal reports he could be out until around 21 November.
A hospital-bed post from the Argentine
Martinez posted a selfie from his hospital bed with a peace sign and a short message.
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“Thanks to everyone for the messages, the operation went well. The most important thing is that we won and kept a clean sheet. We’ll be back in a few weeks.”
Pedro Neto, who had put Chelsea 2-0 up before the collision, dedicated the result to the man carried off behind him. “This win is for him,” the Portuguese forward said.
Alonso’s cup goalkeeper is suddenly his No. 1
Penders is not a complete stranger to a Chelsea matchday. The Belgian, who turned 21 on 31 July, had already played twice this season under Alonso in the Carabao Cup, against Luton Town and Leeds United, before Saturday turned a cup brief into a Premier League one. He is 200 cm tall, left-footed and spent last season on loan at RC Strasbourg, returning to Stamford Bridge in the summer.
At 21 years and 78 days he became the youngest goalkeeper ever to play a Premier League match for Chelsea, according to Sky Sports data cited by Roundtable. He spilled one aerial ball inside his own box, nothing came of it, and the clean sheet survived the final 20 minutes.
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Alonso’s public verdict was short.
“Mike has personality. He’s brave and we have full trust with him.”
Anfield, 28 October, 8pm
The next assignment is not kind. Chelsea travel to Liverpool in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday 28 October, kick-off at 8pm local time. Penders will be in the squad regardless of Martinez’s recovery, as he has been Alonso’s cup choice all season; this time he is likely to be in it as the senior goalkeeper rather than the one with the cup brief, because the man who held the shirt is still recovering from an operation in a Liverpool hospital.
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