Chelsea were given a cruel introduction to the new ABBA penalty shootout system against Arsenal on Sunday.

The Blues suffered defeat to Arsene Wenger’s men for the second time in less than three months under the Wembley arch. Antonio Conte was struck with déjà vu in seeing his side reduced to ten men and conceding late on.

When it came to spot kicks, though, Conte’s side were comfortably defeated 4-1 with only Gary Cahill finding the net.

SIGN UP NOW

Want to become a GMS writer? Sign up now and submit a 250-word test article: http://gms.to/haveyoursay

That’s compared to Arsenal who converted from 12 yards with all four efforts – Nacho Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott all delivering the goods.

In spite of all that, however, Chelsea grabbed the penalty-related headlines when they decided to select Thibaut Courtois as their second taker. And it’s fair to say picking a goalkeeper is something of an unorthodox approach.

The Belgian buckled under the pressure, ballooning his effort over the bar and paving the way for an Arsenal victory.

Petr Cech, as a result, didn’t have anything to do against his opposite number but still knew what he was doing against Courtois. The pair took part in penalty challenges when they played together at Chelsea between 2014 and 2015.

In light of this, Cech cited after the match: “This is not usually where he shoots, so this is probably why he missed because normally he buries it in the top corner on the other side, the way I went.”

So Courtois changed his technique because of Cech and it proved costly. But what would have happened if the Chelsea shotstopper stuck with his usual appraoch?

Well, history certainly bodes well. His Community Shield blunder isn’t, after all, the only penalty he has taken since moving to Stamford Bridge in 2011.

Cast your mind back to the pre-season of 2015 and Chelsea’s International Champions Cup clash with Paris Saint-Germain has gone all the way to spot kicks. The score is at 5-5 after six rounds of penalties each.

With Thiago Silva having failed from 12 yards, Chelsea have the chance to win and Jose Mourinho has given Courtois the green light to step up to the spot. Here’s what happened:

What. A. Penalty.

It doesn’t get more top corner than that and it’s the kind of damage Courtois can inflict when he shoots to his favoured side. Had the 25-year-old finished in that manner at Wembley, it could have been another celebratory shootout.

Instead, nobody is quite sure whether the ball has landed yet.

Do you think Antonio Conte was right to select Thibaut Courtois? Let us know by leaving a comment below.