Since then, Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has lauded Chelsea<\/a>, claiming that Enzo Maresca<\/a>\u2018s side can win the Premier League<\/a> crown.<\/p>\n As well as Nicol, former Scotland forward Alan Brazil has also backed the Blues to challenge for the title in the near future.<\/p>\n Robert Sanchez<\/a> was one reason why Chelsea were able to win the Club World Cup trophy, with the goalkeeper having an excellent tournament.<\/p>\n However, the 27-year-old still has his doubters. Ex-Chelsea midfielder Jody Morris spoke about Sanchez<\/a> after the final, stating that the Blues need to upgrade on him if they want to get to the next level.<\/p>\n Brazil, though, is convinced that Maresca\u2019s team can compete for the Premier League crown with Sanchez in goal.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they\u2019re challengers this year, I really do,\u201d Brazil said on talkSPORT. \u201cNot just because they beat PSG, I could see signs last season, thinking, \u2018Yeah, they\u2019re going to be up there.’\u201d<\/p>\n When asked if he thinks Chelsea\u2019s goalkeeper is good enough for the club to challenge for the title, Brazil replied: \u201cI do, I do.\u201d<\/p>\n At one point, Chelsea also seemed to have had some doubts about Sanchez. Before flying to the US, the club tried to sign Mike Maignan from AC Milan.<\/p>\n All in all, Sanchez continues to divide opinion. The Spaniard has both his critics and admirers.<\/p>\n One manager is a fan of Sanchez<\/a>, believing that the former Brighton & Hove Albion man will save you more points than he will cost you.<\/p>\n Chelsea paid Brighton just \u00a325m<\/a> for Sanchez. Since arriving at Stamford Bridge<\/a>, he has helped the club to qualify for the Champions League and win both Conference League<\/a> and Club World Cup. He has probably now paid back that fee.<\/p>\n If the Spain international can take his Club World Cup form into the Premier League next term and maintain it, Chelsea may very well be able to challenge for first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following their Club World Cup success, some are backing Chelsea to compete in next season\u2019s title race. Chelsea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,4663,561,82],"class_list":["post-3785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-robert-sanchez","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2225064225-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Etsuo Hara\/Getty ImagesAlan Brazil thinks Chelsea can compete with Robert Sanchez<\/p>\n![\"Chelsea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2224585017-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Jose Breton\/Pics Action\/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesWhat those inside the game have said about Robert Sanchez<\/p>\n