Real Madrid join Bayern Munich in the race for Chelsea star Kepa Arrizabalaga after the ACL injury to Thibaut Courtois. (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
Kepa Arrizabalaga has taken to his official Twitter handle to address his penalty miss against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final. Chelsea lost the match in the shootouts as both sides failed to land the telling blow even after 30 minutes of extra time.
Thomas Tuchel brought on Arrizabalaga at the end of ET in place of the in-form Edouard Mendy. The ex-Athletic Bilbao man is apparently trusted more between the sticks when it comes to penalty shootouts. Unfortunately, Kepa failed to impose himself on the game after not just letting in 11 penalty kicks in a row, but also missing the decisive kick in sudden death.
The 27-year-old has expressed his disappointment on his social media account after fans, teammates, and Tuchel defended the second-choice keeper. The goalkeeper conveyed that he would bounce back from this setback and thanked everyone for their support.
“To fall and rise. Disappointed after big effort during the tournament. We keep working. Thanks, @chelseafc family for your support.”
Winning the League Cup against Jurgen Klopp’s side could have been the boost we needed to really have a strong finish to this season. However, football is a harsh sport and despite us putting the ball in the back of the net thrice, albeit illegally, we did not end up with the trophy.
But we must not turn our backs on Kepa after this. Fans should not forget the fact that it was his contributions that helped us reach this stage in the first place. Unfortunately, it was simply one of those days where nothing seemed to be going in our favour.
That being said, tough losses can also be of great help as they force us to use the hardship to mould ourselves and reach our best state. Let’s hope that the team does that in the coming months since we still can win more trophies in the remainder of the current campaign.
The Spanish international can still play a huge role for us, just as he has done since the former PSG boss replaced Frank Lampard at the helm in January 2021. Now, we must look forward to the future and try to improve ourselves to reach our best form at the start of the season.
As for Mendy, he has established himself as one of the world’s best right now. From his close-range save in the early stages of the game to his distribution of the ball throughout the 120 minutes, there is hard to find a flaw in the Senegalese.
Kepa would have to do a lot to become our first-choice once again but it’s not shabby having a goalkeeper as good as the Spaniard for the cup games.
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