The goalkeeper swapped life at Brighton and Hove Albion, who we face tomorrow, for Stamford Bridge shortly before our first match of the 2023/24 season – and made his Blues debut just days after joining the club.

His late arrival and an injury sustained in December, which limited his involvement for the rest of the campaign, left Sanchez feeling that Chelsea supporters didn't see the best of him during his maiden campaign.

However, having started all five of our Premier League fixtures this term and keeping back-to-back clean sheets against Bournemouth – thanks in no small part to his penalty save – and West Ham United, the Spaniard feels that is now changing.

‘I’m feeling pretty good,’ said Sanchez. ‘On the team, I think we’re playing the way we want to play. Maresca is passing the message to us quite quickly and I think it’s showing on the pitch, how good we are playing and improving defensively and attacking.

‘On myself, I’m feeling the best that I’ve ever felt and after two clean sheets we just need to keep this going. It feels amazing because it’s the fittest I’ve felt in the last two years. Two years ago I didn’t have a pre-season, and last year I didn’t have a pre-season.

‘I signed for Chelsea, trained for three days and then played against Liverpool. I wasn’t at my best and played week in, week out, feeling I was at 60 per cent or 70 per cent of what I know I’m capable of. Then the injury happened.

‘But this pre-season I came back two or three weeks before everybody else just to get my knee strong. Now the knee feels like I’ve never had an injury there and I’m just focused on training because I want to give my best.

‘I know what I’m capable of, I know how much better I can get, especially with this team and these players, this coach with the way he supports me on the pitch. We can win things and I want to win things with this club. I’m feeling at my best, better than ever.’

Sanchez also explained why plenty of credit for his own and the team’s form must go to head coach Maresca and the style of play the Italian has introduced at Chelsea.

‘It can suit any player with quality and the will to put the work into it,’ he continued. ‘But Enzo puts every training session toward the way he wants to play and getting every game ready from the first day at the start of the week – every single session doing the shape, doing the work defensively and attacking, so when we go to play on Saturday we know exactly what we’re doing.

‘I really like the way he wants to play. I feel comfortable with the ball at my feet and being an aggressive, high-line goalkeeper. Again we practice every day in training, so we know the passes that are on, trying to find the spare man with short, medium or long passes. I feel really comfortable doing that.’

The next chance to see Sanchez and Maresca’s brand of football in action comes tomorrow afternoon when we take on the goalkeeper’s former club Brighton at the Bridge in the Premier League.

It will undoubtedly be an emotional occasion as Robert lines up against a club he spent a decade with, but the 26-year-old's focus is on securing three points for Chelsea against dangerous opponents.

‘I’ve still got really good friends there who are playing in the team. It’s the club that gave me everything since I was 16. The academy helped me when I arrived, through loan spells and improving my outside life. I owe everything to them.

‘I think their start to the season has been amazing. They have two wins and three draws right now, they are unbeaten, so it’s a strong team that knows how to play football really well.

'So we have to go and play them with our best mentality and thinking that we need to win, not taking it for granted.’

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