Greenlighting a fourth season of ‘The Robert Sanchez Experience’ always seemed a deeply questionable decision, and a universally panned premiere at Craven Cottage on Monday has pushed Chelsea to the brink of what would be a very popular cancellation.Emiliano Martinez being eminently available at Aston Villa has changed the landscape in the final days of this transfer window. All summer the message coming out of Stamford Bridge was that Chelsea were happy with their goalkeeping options, and the hope was that Sanchez could at least be solid enough until Belgian youngster Mike Penders was ready to step up.Instead, Sanchez produced the kind of performance against Fulham that underlined why he long ago lost the trust of most match-going Chelsea supporters, allowing Josh King’s shot to go through his hands before parrying Timothy Castagne’s shot straight to Gonzalo Garcia.He almost conceded a third self-inflicted goal, opening himself up to an Antonee Robinson lob that mercifully drifted well wide after he had made a misguided charge into no-man’s land.Robert Sanchez reacts to conceding Chelsea’s second goal against Fulham (Adrian Dennis / AFP via Getty Images)All goalkeepers make mistakes, and those mistakes tend to be more memorable because they more often lead to opposition goals than gaffes made higher up the pitch. Opta data reveals that over three full Premier League seasons from the start of 2023-24 to the end of 2025-26, Sanchez made seven errors leading to goals to Martinez’s six (though the Argentina international played 20 more games and almost 1,700 more minutes over that time period).But numbers can only ever provide part of the picture. They cannot account for the audible frustration that ripples around Stamford Bridge when Sanchez misplaces a pass, misjudges a cross or dallies just long enough over a rolling ball to get himself into trouble. They cannot account for the encouragement that his sloppy or indecisive moments give to opposing players or fans, or the anxiety that they spread to the Chelsea defenders in front of him, cascading to create the overwhelming sense that something bad is going to happen.