Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has backed Mike Penders to succeed at the club despite his error in the Blues 2-0 loss to Tottenham on Saturday.
Penders made his first Premier League start at Stamford Bridge but things didn’t work out as planned for the 21-year-old. The Belgian goalkeeper punched the ball into his own net from a corner in the 77th minute.
Despite the error, Blues boss Alonso has confirmed Penders would start Wednesday’s Carabao Cup fourth-round meeting at Liverpool, told the club’s website: “It’s part of the business; you need to deal with mistakes and we keep confidence in Mike.
”We win and we lose together and it’s part of the job to deal with mistakes, myself as well as everyone.
”We support Mike and Geo [Quenda] as well, the guys starting their first [Premier League] games. He will want to prove he can do better — and we also have to show that.”
Blues defender Lacroix also back his teammate to learn from the mistake.
Lacroix said: “He is a young goalkeeper and he has a lot of talent. He will learn from this. This can happen in football careers and in life.
”Everyone makes mistakes, and we have to be with him and we are going to be with him. We are behind him. He will help us this season and now we have to help him.”
Mike Penders scores an own goal during the Premier League 2026/27 match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. (Photo by Shaun Brooks – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Chelsea will travel to Anfield for the cup clash before taking on struggling Manchester United in the Premier League on Saturday.
Lacroix added: “[Liverpool] is a big game for us. We want to go far in this competition and it’s good that we have a game like this now.
”We have to move on and work on some details to be stronger in certain moments and change some situations.
”We have to show the reaction of a competitor. We want to show another face, we want to win there, and it’s going to be a big game.”
