Locking Chelsea's victory over Aston Villa last weekend, however, the heroic action of Chief Arrizabalaga when maintaining the sanctity of the Chelsea goal also cannot be ruled out.
To Arrizabalaga as possessed by Peter Cech, he denied all chances from Steven Gerard's squad, after the long whistle sounded the crowd's applause accompanying Kepa Arrizabalaga's footsteps into the dressing room.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, lost in the atmosphere because he hadn't had a moment like this in a long time. Yes, since his third season with Chelsea, Mandy's position has been displaced by Kepa. however, he slowly began to rise and try to reclaim what was rightfully his. Namely, Chelsea's number one goalkeeper.
The Spanish goalkeeper was actually a player that Chelsea management did not want, the London club was forced to bring in Kepa Arrizabalaga in 2018. Because their main goalkeeper at that time, Courtois, pressured the club to release him to the Santiago Bernabeu.
Initially Chelsea did not target Kepa Arrizabalaga at all, but after Ellison Becker from AS Roma. However, because Chelsea were reluctant to meet the bandrol requested by Rome, namely 62 million Euros, Liverpool managed to corner Chelsea to get the goalkeeper.
A panicked Chelsea finally broke through the transfer budget in order to get Kepa Arrizabalaga, the Blues were willing to redeem the goalkeeper's purchase clause from Atlhelic Bilbao which was at 80 million Euros. That figure is even the world's highest transfer record for a goalkeeper, the former Bilbao retainer did not have to wait long to become Chelsea's main goalkeeper who is still being handled by Maurizio Sarri.
Even from the first 10 matches of the 2018/2019 Premier League season, he was always a starter and helped Chelsea win 10 games unbeaten, Kepa also kept 5 clean sheets. The 2018/2019 season was also an extraordinary one for Kepa, although he had a disagreement with the coach for refusing to be substituted in the penalty shootout during the league cup final against Manchester City.
He managed to pay for his mistakes with slick appearances throughout the season, he managed to lead his team to finish in third place behind Manchester City and Liverpool. Kepa's superiority is his reflexes and skill in dealing with penalty kicks, this is exactly the ability of former Chelsea goalkeeper Peter Cech.
So when facing a penalty shootout situation, Kepa has always been the backbone of the Blues to ward off every opponent's kick. His skills were proven in the 2018-2019 Europa League second leg semi-final match against Frankfurt, Chelsea were only able to draw 2-2 so the match had to proceed to the penalty shootout.
Kepa managed to save two penalties from Frankfurt players so that Chelsea managed to qualify for the final with a final score of 5-4. In addition, Kepa was also a vital figure behind Chelsea's success in winning the Europa League that season after beating Arsenal 4-1, the Spaniard also kept 7 clean sheets and conceded only 8 times in the 13 matches he played in the League on Friday night. .
In the second season, even though the coaching chair was changed to Frank Lampard, Kepa was still a mainstay for the Blues in goal. However, Kepa was unable to bring a single trophy to his club. The only final achieved by Chelsea was the FA Cup but they had to admit Arsenal's advantage with a score of 2-1, Kepa's decline in performance actually occurred at the start of the 2020-2021 season.
In that season Kepa often made ridiculous blunders, instead of saves, heroic saves like the previous two seasons. Kepa Even conceded 32 goals in 24 appearances in the Premier League that season, of course this is a bad record for a goalkeeper from a team that targets the title every season.
His bad record made Kepa rested for several matches, Kepa's poor performance on the field was said to be the fruit of a broken heart because of his relationship with Andrea Perez. The lover he had been dating for 7 years ran aground in the middle of the road, this was confirmed by a statement from one of Kepa's friends.
The failure of love made Kepa's mental health at its lowest point, even his parents who flew directly from Spain did not succeed in increasing their child's motivation to play. With performances that never improved, Chelsea also brought in Edward Mandy from Rennes in 2020, the 30-year-old goalkeeper managed to replace Kepa from Chelsea's main line-up for two consecutive seasons, 2022-2021 and 2021 2022.
Kepa really didn't get enough playing minutes with Chelsea, he only played in domestic cups in the Premier League. He only played 7 games and conceded 8 goals, in total He only played 14 matches in the entire competition for the 2020-2021 season. Whereas in the 2021 2022 season, Kepa has only played one game more than the previous season.
Kepa, who began to despair, had stated that he was willing to be loaned to another club in order to get playing minutes, he said, loaned wherever he said as long as he didn't let Chelsea go. Several clubs had shown interest in the transfer market last summer, but the deal did not go well which ultimately made Kepa stay at Chelsea.
Welcoming the 2022 2023 season, Kepa remained faithful to fill the bench at the beginning of the season. Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel was more of a fan of Mandy than Kepa, but when the seat of training shifted to Grahan Potter the former Brighton coach had different tastes when it came to goalkeeper selection.
Surprisingly Potter dared to substitute Mandy who had given him the Champions League title, he chose Kepa as Chelsea's main goalkeeper. Potter feels Kepa is calmer on the ball than Mandy, so Kepa will be very helpful when the team is building attacks from below.
Potter's decision to choose Kepa was the right one, in Potter's first 6 games, Kepa went down and Chelsea did not accept defeat at all even against several teams in the Champions League. Kepa continues to skyrocket in the hands of Potter, a total of 6 matches Kepa has kept 4 clean sheets and only conceded 2 goals.
His appearance was charming, his name soared when he successfully secured the Chelsea goal from the onslaught of Aston Villa players a few days ago. In that match Kepa collected 7 saves, 3 of them in a row in the 21st minute, it was the most during his career in the Premier League.
Potter in this case really becomes Harry Potter who is able to restore his strength, with a touch of magic.