Chelsea’s 22 Premier League keepers Ranking from worst to best
Aside from recent seasons, Chelsea has rarely had to worry about who they’ve had between the posts in the Premier League era, thanks to a string of consistent No.1s since the turn of the century.
They had a rocky couple of years under Maurizio Sarri and Frank Lampard, but things are looking a lot more secure between the sticks now. But what about all of their other Premier League keepers?
Since 1992, the club has fielded a total of 22 players in the league. This is how we ranked them.
22. Mark Bosnich
The Australian had established himself as a reliable presence in goal during his time at Aston Villa in the 1990s, and he had some success on his return to Manchester United, winning the Premier League title in 2001-02.
However, by the time he arrived in west London, he appeared incapable of repeating his best performances and only appeared in seven games for the Blues. Oh, and his time there was not without incident, as he was fired and banned for nine months after failing a drugs test.
21. Gerry Peyton
Payton’s career would later take a nosedive after moving from Bournemouth to Everton in 1991 – despite the fact that he was approaching the veteran stage of his career at the time.
He never played a league game for Everton and was loaned out to four clubs, including Chelsea in 1993, where he made one second-half appearance in a 2-0 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.
20.Nick Colgan
A trailblazer for the Chelsea loan army, having spent the vast majority of his six-year Chelsea career being sent away on a glamorous tour of England – Crewe, Grimsby, Millwall…
He went on to play for the Republic of Ireland, but his time at Chelsea was limited to a single Premier League appearance – a 3-2 loss to West Ham.
19. Craig Forrest
Forrest, a former Canada international and Ipswich Town stalwart, spent the final few months of his time with the Tractor Boys on loan at Chelsea.
He made three appearances, beginning with a 3-1 loss to Newcastle but ending with victories over Leicester (2-1) and Wimbledon (1-0).
18. Lenny Pidgeley
While Carlo Cudicini and, later, Petr Cech were at the club, the wonderfully named academy graduate first broke through in 2003 but had little chance of regular opportunities.
He only made two appearances for the club, both on the final days of the club’s title-winning seasons in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
17. Marco Ambrosio
The Italian journeyman rarely stayed in one place for long, as evidenced by his arrival at Stamford Bridge in 2003, right at the start of the Roman Abramovic era. Following the arrival of Petr Cech a year later, he was allowed to leave.
Claudio Ranieri brought him in, and he had a forgettable debut with two blunders in a 4-2 League Cup victory over Notts County, but he would later redeem himself with a strong performance at Highbury as Chelsea knocked Arsenal’s Invincibles out of the Champions League.
16. Ross Turnbull
When he signed on a free transfer in 2009, Turnbull boasted about his chances of competing with Petr Cech for the No. 1 shirt.
“Understandably it is going to be difficult, Petr Cech is one of the best in the world and it’s not going to be easy, but it’s up to me to work and take my chance when it may come along,” he told Sky Sports.
“Nothing is ever guaranteed, so I see it as a fight between all three of us and it’s an exciting challenge.”
Obviously, things didn’t go as planned, and he made a nightmare debut in a 4-0 loss to Aston Villa, but his honours list will always include a Champions League medal, and you can’t take that away from him (even if he didn’t play a single minute).
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