Chelsea Goalkeepers – Who Is The Greatest CFC Keeper?

• Some of the finest goalkeepers of all time have plied their trade at the Bridge

• In recent years, Chelsea have been blessed with genuine greats between the posts

• A modern-day Champions League winner stands out as the best of the best

Chelsea have historically, recently, and consistently been one of England’s most successful footballing institutions, so it is hardly a surprise their half of fame is packed full of legends.

Genuine greats have graced the Stamford Bridge turf and lots of them.

But while the likes of Jimmy Greaves, Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris, and Frank Lampard are very much at the fore, theirs is a club that has been furnished down the decades with magnificent goalkeepers too.

That has remained the case in the 21st century, which partly explains why any Premier League odds featuring the Blues are usually on the slim side.

Because these agile giants rarely concede, with cheap goals anathema to them. Their gloves are huge. Their talent is even larger.

Current Chelsea Goalkeepers

The back-story of Edouard Mendy is one of perseverance and self-belief.

Aged 22, he was claiming unemployment benefit in France after being released by Cherbourg and with a child on the way, football no longer seemed a viable career path.

A year spent training with Le Havre reserves led to an opportunity to prove himself at Marseilles and the Senegalese stopper certainly took it with both hands, establishing himself as a top-class talent in Ligue 1.

A move to West London followed in 2020 and ever since, Mendy’s stock has sharply risen with former team-mate Willy Caballero recently proclaiming him the best goalkeeper in the world.

It's a claim with serious merit. After all, Mendy played a pivotal role in Chelsea securing a Champions League in his debut campaign, maintaining a record number of clean sheets along the way.

The 29-year-old was the first African keeper to start in a Champions League final since Bruce Grobbelaar in 1985.

Meanwhile, a series of highly proficient performances domestically has seen Chelsea become a Premier League force to be reckoned with, admired for their defensive fortitude.

Mendy’s ownership of the number one jersey is all-the-more impressive given the quality of Kepa Arrizabalaga, the player he ousted.

Just last year, the Spaniard was still widely viewed as one of the top Premier League goalkeepers around but a sustained dip in form resulted in his club looking around for alternative options.

Still, the 6ft 1 stopper boasts a C.V. to be proud of, earning 11 caps for his country as well as bolstering his side’s Europa League success in 2019.

Possessing every attribute needed from a top keeper, not for nothing did Chelsea shell out £71.6m for his services, making Kepa the world’s most expensive goalkeeper in the process.

Acting as back-up to these two sublime shot-stoppers is Marcus Bettinelli, signed on a free from Fulham in the summer of 2021.

An England under-21 international in his younger days, the Londoner made over a hundred appearances for the Cottagers and is a capable and agile deputy.

Right now, it is Mendy who is firmly Thomas Tuchel’s first choice, but strong competition is needed at every elite club and Chelsea absolutely have that as they compete for silverware on various fronts.

Best Chelsea Goalkeepers

• Carlo Cudicini

Chelsea’s Player of the Year in 2001/02 took a while to cement a starting spot at the Bridge after manager Gianluca Vialli acted on a recommendation of a friend and signed the Italian for £300,000 in 1999.

Once established in the first team however, his athleticism and razor-sharp reflexes soon made him a firm fan favourite, a cult status he still retains.

Cudicini would today be a scourge/champion – depending on your wager – of the football betting community because few were better at saving penalties while elsewhere numerous games were decided almost single-handedly from goalkeeping masterclasses.

On retirement this popular figure took on a coaching position at the club, passing on his know-how to Chelsea stars of the future.

• Ed de Goey

When the Premier League’s finest shot-stoppers are celebrated the Dutchman is so often forgotten, presumably due to the quiet efficiency that accompanied his three-year stewardship of Chelsea’s goal.

Perhaps too, the Blues’ pre-Abramovich era in the top-flight received a little less attention than it does today.

Whatever the reason, it’s an unfair oversight because De Goey was an outstanding talent who played a sizable part in Chelsea winning a string of trophies at the turn of the century, including a FA Cup triumph and continental glory via the Cup Winners Cup

In 1999/00, the Gouda-born keeper kept a remarkable 27 clean sheets across all competitions.

• Thibaut Courtois

Courtois filled the Chelsea net with his 6ft 7 frame on 126 occasions, winning two Premier League titles behind a back-line that struck fear into the very best forwards.

Our Premier League predictions have the Blues firmly in the reckoning to lift the crown again in 2021/22.

A Golden Glove winner at the 2018 World Cup, the intimidatingly brilliant Belgian was the answer to a briefly impossible quandary for Chelsea, that being: how do you replace the peerless and perfect Petr Cech?

Yet the Czech’s uncommonly high standards were maintained by Courtois until he moved to Real Madrid in 2018 citing family reasons.

Not many number ones have won the league for three different teams. Courtois has, with Atletico Madrid, Chelsea and Real all forever grateful for his calm and consistent excellence.

• Peter Bonetti

The legend known to his many fans as ‘The Cat’ was a member of England’s World Cup winning squad in 1966 and was more centrally involved four years later in West Germany.

Yet still this exceptionally gifted stopper only won seven caps for his country, a result of playing second fiddle to the great Gordon Banks.

In West London however, Bonetti reigned supreme, making 600 appearances in a career that spanned just shy of two decades.

More than one vintage Chelsea side came to prominence in that time, each of them backed up by their keeper’s finely-tuned instincts.

Bonetti sadly passed away in 2020 but he will always be a king of the King’s Road.

• Petr Cech

Across 14 largely successful seasons the towering Cech was unquestionably one of the best goalkeepers in the EPL.

Indeed, it could be argued that he edges out Peter Schmeichel as the finest exponent of his craft in the modern era.

During his unparalleled peak in the mid-2000s, the four-time Golden Glove recipient smashed all manner of records, not least the longest period of time without conceding a Premier League goal.

If magnificent wingers can be deemed ‘unplayable’ at their best the Cech was simply unbeatable as Chelsea romped to consecutive league titles under Jose Mourinho.

A Champions League winner and blessed with a positional sense that bordered on the supernatural, he was quite simply Chelsea’s all-time number one number one.

*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*

FIRST PUBLISHED: 25th November 2021