Chelsea have started breaking away from the rest in the English Premier League following impressive runs. The blues thrashed Norwich 7-0 on Saturday afternoon before Man City saw off Brighton 4-1. Even more surprising is that Chelsea have only conceded 3 goals.
Edouard Mendy, Liverpool's Alisson Becker, and Manchester City's Ederson have been at their best during the period, and are joint at the top in the race for the Golden Glove with five clean sheets each.
29-year-old Mendy cemented his place as the in-form shot-stopper in the Premier League with an outstanding display, labelled 'world class' by Brentford boss Thomas Frank. The Bees manager had just seen the Senegal international make a succession of incredible saves, each more impressive than the last, until topping his performance with an incredible reflex stop to tip Christian Norgaard's acrobatic effort over the crossbar to preserve Chelsea's 1-0 win.
While the sky appears the limit in the Premier League, however, it appears others are putting limitations on his abilities. Much of the footballing world has raised an eyebrow at Mendy's omission from the Ballon d'Or shortlist. Despite becoming the first African goalkeeper to lift the Champions League - breaking an English club record for clean sheets recorded in the competition in the process - there was no room on the list of 30 for him. Mendy himself has been very diplomatic about his snub. 'There will always be debates, whether it's about me or someone else,' he added.
Mendy has a better save percentage, better clean-sheet ratio and has conceded far fewer goals per game for Chelsea. The Senegal international came to Chelsea in September 2020, replacing Kepa Arrizabalaga as the starting goalkeeper. Since then, he has had an incredible impact at the club, forming one of the strongest defensive structures in world football today. Mendy joined Chelsea last year from Ligue 1 side Rennes and has since built a reputation. Since joining the club, Mendy has kept 20 clean sheets in 35 league games, conceding just 20 goals in that time. He has been active in those 38 games too as he is credited with making 82 saves.
Another stat battle which Mendy won was Goals Against per 90 minutes as his 0.67 goals allowed per 90 beat Ederson’s 0.69. Looking at the current season to date has Mendy once again ahead of his peers with a ridiculous save% of 90.9% and only 5 goals allowed in his ten games so far.
He won the UEFA Champions League Goalkeeper of the Season award for Chelsea’s title-winning campaign. This marked the first time a Chelsea goalkeeper has won the award since club legend Petr Cech in 2012. In said campaign, Mendy equalled the record for most clean sheets in a Champions League season with nine. He was also the winner of the Best African International award for the 2020/2021 season in the Ghana Football Awards.
Mendy was also nominated for the Yashin award meaning that there is a good chance that the former Ligue 1 man can win something for his heroic performances in goal during his short stay so far apart from racing towards the season's Golden Glove.