Chelsea are likely going to have the most expensive goalkeeper in the world on the bench for the FA Cup final against Arsenal this afternoon.It’s been a pretty wretched season for Kepa Arrizabalaga, who the club spent £71.6 million on in the summer of 2018.The Spaniard played 33 times in the Premier League during this campaign, conceding 47 goals. His save percentage is just 55.4%, putting him 127th out of 132 goalkeepers in Europe’s top seven leagues.In fact, according to Twitter user @ThumbsUpFlag, Kepa’s save percentage is the worst of all 730 goalkeepers to have played 10 or more appearances in Premier League history.If that’s not bad enough, he’s conceded 8% of all the goals scored against Chelsea in Premier League history. Meanwhile, of the 47 goals he’s conceded in the league this season, he failed to move for 30% of them.That’s really not good, is it?
After conceding five against Liverpool in Chelsea’s penultimate Premier League match, he was dropped for their final game against Wolves with Willy Caballero deputising.And that is likely to be the case at Wembley in the cup final.At least it will be if Frank Lampard was watching Kepa closely in training.That’s because his performance left a lot to be desired.A clip of Christian Pulisic taking shots against Kepa is going viral as the American scored five in a row without Kepa getting anywhere near them.It didn’t stop there, though.Kepa later conceded a Ross Barkley shot during a training match through his legs, leaving Ruben Loftus-Cheek visibly frustrated.
Then, a clip of Kepa facing two shots was posted with the goalkeeper failing to move for either of them. Caballero replaces him in the sticks and immediately saves the first one.
We don’t want to kick a man while he’s down but he’s just not very good, is he?
When asked which goalkeeper will start in the final, Lampard refused to reveal his selection.
"As we’ve seen in the season at times, I’ve had to change it when I’ve felt the need to change it," Lampard said at his press conference on Friday.
"I always do it with the idea of: can we win the game, can we be the strongest we can be? And it’s always with the consideration of what opposition are in front of us. For big games like this it becomes slightly more difficult because I know how much players want to be involved in these games."