GLOVES ARE OFF AS RIVALS WAIT TO SEE WHO POTTER TRUSTS MOST

FOR the first time since Edouard Mendy joined Chelsea in 2020, there is a genuine battle for the No1 shirt - and it is happening amid the backdrop of their stuttering Champions League campaign.

- Nizaar Kinsella V AC MILAN

Kepa Arrizabalaga could well start ahead of fit-again Mendy tonight, when Chelsea know that a defeat against Milan will almost certainly see them knocked out.

The Spaniard has forced his way back into the reckoning since being dropped after his save percentage fell to a League-worst 54.5 per cent at the end of the 2019-20 season.

The helter-skelter nature of Chelsea's defending back then - under the management of Frank Lampard drove down his performances, with clubs targeting him at set-pieces after seeing him fail to claim a single corner over the season.

It all led to the Blues bringing in Mendy for £22million from Rennes in September of 2020. Thomas Tuchel then succeeded Lampard the following January and he opted to keep Mendy in goal, with the Senegalese going on to keep the joint-most clean sheets in a season in the Champions League.

Indeed, for Tuchel there was no doubt who the No1 was. Kepa has played just 29 matches across the last two seasons, while no player was an unused substitute more often under the German.