Édouard Mendy deserves recognition in final knockings of Abramovich era

It must be very strange to be Édouard Mendy, a goalkeeper who seems doomed never quite to be centre stage. And when the spotlight does fall on him, it often feels it’s from a strange angle, that he’s not really appreciated for what he’s best at. Goalkeepers perhaps struggle than other positions to be properly understood, but few seem as misunderstood as the Senegal international.

In a very slightly different world, one in which Gianluigi Donnarumma had not made a vastly expensive move and saved crucial penalties in shootouts in the semi-final and final of Euro 2020, Mendy would have won a raft of goalkeeping awards last year. In a very slightly different world, he would have been seen as the hero of Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final victory over Crystal Palace on Sunday . This could have been his redemption after the error in the first leg that cost Chelsea their Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.

His low save to his left to keep out a Cheikhou Kouyaté volley nine minutes before half-time was stunning, but the impact was perhaps lost because Joachim Andersen’s follow-up, which cannoned back off a post, was immediately ruled offside. Kouyaté’s effort would have counted, but the dramatic impact of Mendy’s intervention was lost as the flag was raised. (Of course had Andersen scored, there would have been plenty lining up to say Mendy, even at full stretch, responding sharply to a snap-shot through a crowded box, should somehow have pushed the ball away from oncoming opponents.)

You can make almost any case with hypotheticals, but imagine that save had come late in the game, when the score was still 1-0. Perhaps Mendy’s save would not quite have gone down as one of the great Wembley saves, a stop to rival Jim