Mourinho names Thibaut Courtois No. 1 goalkeeper

Chelsea F.C. manager Jose Mourinho handed Thibaut Courtois his club debut for the English Premier League opener at Burnley on Monday.

The Blues were 3-1 victors as new arrivals Cesc Fábregas and Diego Costa, with the former providing two assists and the latter a goal.

Meanwhile, Courtois claimed four crosses  and made one save, doing very little to put his starting-place in jeopardy.

The Belgium international, 22, seems a lock to be the club’s long term No.1 goalkeeper but — nonetheless — Mourinho has revealed he does not want Petr Cech to leave Stamford Bridge.

“Petr Cech was disappointed but football is sometimes like this, players can often be unhappy and be unhappy with managers,” Mourinho told Sky Sports. “But between the group of players and their mates they have to be supportive.

“I hope he doesn’t want to go and I hope he doesn’t have offers to go and if he does have offers he refuses to go. I would be delighted to have two of the best goalkeepers in the world in my squad.”

Recent reports have linked the Czech Republic star with UEFA Champions League contenders Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid. Of the aforementioned two potential destinations, PSG seems to be the best option.

Since arriving at the Parc des Princes in 2011, Salvatore Sirigu has been a colossal figure in between the sticks for Les Parisiens but a switch to the Spanish capital would bring about more competition, with Iker Casillas and Keylor Navas on Los Blancos’ books.

But Cech could still remain at Chelsea. After all, a lot can change over the course of the season and the 32-year-old could still — albeit against the odds — regain his starting place.

“I don’t make decisions for the season, I make decisions for a match,” added Mourinho.

“Obviously a goalkeeper is not the kind of player you change match after match, you must give a bit of stability, but this is about performances so Thibaut has to know that having a goalkeeper of Petr’s level sitting on the bench, it means from him we want a high level of performance.

“Ten years ago I also had a very difficult decision to make when we had [Carlo] Cudicini giving fantastic performances in Chelsea’s goal for many years. I had in my hands a 22-year-old goalkeeper I thought could be in Chelsea’s goals for years and years and years and this situation is quite similar.

“But Petr is an amazing goalkeeper and the difference between them is 10 years, and we have to think about the future of the club and I made the decision to give the goal to Courtois.

“But I’m so, so comfortable and feel so safe by having these two goalkeepers with us. Petr is a fantastic professional.

“He only knew my decision this morning. He fought hard for his place in pre-season. Obviously he’s ready to play. How does he behave? In a professional way, which is what we expect from him because he was always a fantastic professional.

“I hope that he’ll fight for his place and he will not sit in a comfortable chair and accept the position. He’s a winner and he’s a fighter and he will fight for his place.”

Now then, was Mourinho justified in selecting Courtois over Cech?

The answer is simple. Yes. At 22, Courtois has already been named to the European Sports Media (ESM) Team of the Year (2013/14) and is a two-time (2012/13, 2013/14) winner of the Ricardo Zamora Trophy, awarded for the lowest “goals-to-games” ratio in Liga BBVA.