sport news ADRIAN KAJUMBA: Mendy set superb standards at Chelsea but he is now entrenched ... trends now
Perhaps it was inevitable, given the record-breaking standards Edouard Mendy set, that they would be near-impossible to maintain.
The start of Chelsea's Champions League campaign against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday is a timely reminder of those levels but also the at-times-unbeatable, unflappable last line of defence they could do with Mendy returning to.
Just six years after he was on the dole and thinking he had no future in football Mendy had risen remarkably up France's football ladder to earn a 2020 move to Chelsea.
Edouard Mendy joined Chelsea in 2020 and was quickly considered a world-class goalkeeper
Signed to compete with Kepa Arrizabalaga, Mendy did much more than that, replacing him as first choice and bringing some much-needed order to a position that had become unsettled.
Mendy helped Chelsea win the Champions League in his first season, keeping a record-equalling nine clean sheets.
He was then voted goalkeeper of the year for 2021 by both UEFA and FIFA after keeping 27 shutouts and conceding just 34 goals in 51 games.
Mendy had been proposed to numerous clubs before joining Chelsea having emerged as statistically as one of the best keepers around.
Chelsea's decision to sign him from Rennes was a triumph for recruiting cleverly over favouring reputation.
While the claims of Atletico Madrid's established Jan Oblak were being pushed former technical and performance advisor Petr Cech, a man who knows a thing or two about playing goal for Chelsea and joining from Rennes, insisted Mendy was the better choice.
The decision to side with Cech paid off handsomely, especially given that Mendy, at £22million, cost a fraction of Oblak's £110m buyout fee.
But the 30-year-old has since let errors slip into his game and they're bringing consequences
Though Mendy is currently enduring a period of aura-denting, condensed-together slips which are coming with consequences.
Head coach Thomas Tuchel said: 'Somebody sent me an interesting quote about Napoleon who asked his generals if that they
