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Daniel Childs

Thomas Tuchel urged to resist £75m Chelsea switch after title challenge wobble at West Ham

There were a few things about Chelsea's defeat to West Ham that was shocking.

Thomas Tuchel's usually imperious defence conceding not just twice, but three goals for the first time this season in any game. A recently thriving attack completely evaporated in the second half even with Romelu Lukaku's introduction.

But mostly was the two mistakes from Edouard Mendy which directly lead to West Ham goals that changed the course of a game to dent Chelsea's growing title hopes.

These were moments that are completely freakish to Mendy's time at Stamford Bridge so far which has pretty much been awash with praise.

The first lost Chelsea their lead, the second lost Chelsea the game and top spot.

Bizarrely panicking from Jorginho's albeit heavy backpass to eventually take down Jarrod Bowen for a penalty which Manuel Lanzini scored to make it 1-1.

Then in the final 10 minutes misjudging Arthur Masuaku's cross which his outstretched palms could not keep out. 3-2 and Chelsea's unbeaten Premier League record which stretches back to late September was over.

Goalkeepers in the modern game feel more heavily scrutinised than ever before. Every single goal now seemingly a chance to critique a keeper's positioning to the microscopic level.

Probably best summarised by some analysis of Mason Mount's ridiculous finish before half-time leading to questions of Łukasz Fabiański.

It's probably the hardest position to play currently given this reality and a keeper's error are always going to be of greater drama due to the fact they almost certainly always lead to a goal.

But this probably was Mendy's first poor day since signing from Rennes in 2020 or at least one that had severe implications.

Edouard Mendy had a poor performance against West Ham in Saturday's 3-2 defeat. (Rob Newell - CameraSport via Getty Images))

Digging deeper into his numbers so far signals that a drop was likely coming given the outstanding over-performance for some time.

Looking at Wyscout's goalkeeping numbers so far this season in the Premier League, Edouard Mendy sits top for prevented goals (6.87), the closest to him being Arsenal's Aaron Ramsdale (3.99). Per 90 Mendy also ranks highest (0.45) again in front of Ramsdale (0.33) and Wolves' Jose Sa (0.24).

For all the scrutiny Mendy will briefly face, the overwhelming narrative of his time so far has one of pure brilliance. Significantly transforming an area that was so fragile before he was bought in for £22m.

There is no better indication of Mendy's influence than his current understudy Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Kepa Arrizabalaga was statistically one of the worst Premier League goalkeepers in 2019/20. (Chris Lee - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

For all of Kepa's penalty heroics in the Super Cup and League Cup recently, there is a reason Frank Lampard eventually shunned the club's £75m singing where his underlying numbers told the complete opposite story to Mendy's.

Gazing back to the 2019/20 season when Kepa was Chelsea's first choice he held the worst save percentage in all of Europe's top five leagues - the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1.

A 54.5 save percentage put him amongst the worst keepers in the Premier League that season, eventually marking it as a historically poor campaign.

Tuchel has done well to rehabilitate Kepa's confidence since but few should be calling for his reintroduction as a regular starter given Mendy's outstanding form and greatly improved performance.

The fact there are great fears over Mendy's involvement in AFCON during January is more proof of this.

"Edou is dealing with a rough period." was the way Tuchel reflected on Mendy's poor performance on Saturday.

"I don't know why exactly but he seems to have lost a bit of confidence. OK, his decision-making was not on the highest level today with the first goal but we also bring him to a really awkward situation."

Jorginho should hold some accountability for the penalty, playing a sloppy ball into the feet of his keeper which attracted instant pressure from West Ham attackers.

And Masuaku's cross widely described as freakish summarises why Mendy was caught out, planting his weight expecting to cross to be aimed towards his near post.

These are surprising errors for a keeper of Mendy's level, but let's not pretend the likes of Allison and Ederson have endured similar whilst still widely being regarded as the Premier League's best.

Mendy will come back to form, all logic tells us he's been an amazing addition to the first-team squad and it's imperative neither fans nor Tuchel loses sight of that.

Especially when the reason for his arrival in the first place was so glaring.

Make sure you have subscribed to CareFree Chelsea on YouTube! The Fan Brands team along with plenty of your football.london favourites will be producing daily Chelsea content for you to enjoy including match reactions, podcasts, football fun and interviews. You can follow Daniel Childs from the CareFreeChelsea team to keep up to date with his work. If you enjoyed reading this then give my other articles a read below.

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