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Kepa's Time At Chelsea: The Good and The Bad

Chelsea have today confirmed that Spanish goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga has departed the club, making the switch to one of the club's London rivals, Arsenal, for a fee of £5 million.

Kepa had spent the two most recent campaigns away from Stamford Bridge, the first at Real Madrid before making a return to the Premier League, representing Bournemouth throughout the 24/25 season.

The Spaniard remains the world's most expensive goalkeeper after The Blues signed him from Athletic Bilbao in 2017 for a fee of £71 million.

He represented Chelsea on 163 occasions and was part of the squads that lifted the Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup trophies.

In these appearances, he has had some memorable moments, some for the wrong reasons, others for the right.

Here are some of the worst and best moments of Kepa's time at Chelsea:

Probably the most infamous of all of Kepa's moments in a Chelsea shirt, as the 2019 Carabao Cup final against Manchester City saw potentially one of the largest acts of defiance ever between a player and manager.

After suffering with cramp late into the match, Chelsea manager at the time, Maurizio Sarri, decided to replace the Spaniard before the penalty shootout with Willy Caballero.

However, he simply refused to leave the pitch. Failing to be persuaded by his teammates, he ignored the call, forcing an infuriated Sarri to cancel the substitute. He would participate in the penalty shootout, making only a single save as his side fell to defeat.

This angered fans as Caballero seemed like the much better option for the shootout as he had been at City the season before this one and would likely have had knowledge of the penalty takers. Additionally, the Argentine had also won a shootout for City against Liverpool in 2016.

One of Kepa's best moments in a Chelsea shirt came in one of his most important matches whilst representing the Blues.

Chelsea took on Frankfurt at Stamford Bridge in the second leg of the semi-finals, with the first leg ending 1-1.

Goals from Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Luka Jovic took the game to a penalty shootout for a place in the Europa League final.

Kepa made himself the hero of the night as he saved two penalties from Gonçalo Paciência and Martin Hinteregger to book a place in the final for his team.

Worst - Chelsea vs Liverpool (September 2020)

One of the most infamous games on the topic of Kepa's struggles at Chelsea, he certainly won't want to remember this one.

Not helped by Andreas Christensen's red card in the first half, Kepa was a victim of a brace from Sadio Mane, one of the goals, however, was his own doing.

The first was a headed attempt far out of the reach of the Spaniard, with very little that he could do.

The second goal was a disaster for Kepa. The ball was played back to the goalkeeper with Sadio Mane charging towards him. His clearance was straight at the Senegalese attacker, who found himself with an easy finish to kill the game.

Best - A Record-Breaking Stop

Later in his Chelsea career, Kepa was building a reputation for himself as a penalty specialist, being substituted on multiple times ahead of shootouts. This was often the tactic of Thomas Tuchel in the 21/22 season, leading to the Spaniard making some history for Chelsea.

Upon his shootout victory against Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup, Kepa broke the club record for the most amount of penalties saved in shootouts (7). This moved him above club legend Petr Cech to take the record and put his name in the positive side of the Chelsea history books after a tough time in West London.

It was a rare shootout to forget for Kepa against Liverpool in the final of the Carabao Cup as he failed to save any of the 11 penalties from the Reds.

He made many attempts to distract Liverpool's penalty takers, which did not work, including moving to one side of the goal, urging the taker to shoot into the empty side of the net. This did not work for Virgil Van Dijk, who was completely unfazed, blasting his penalty into the occupied side - an embarrassing moment for the Chelsea keeper.

Things got worse for the Spaniard, however, as after conceding a penalty to Liverpool's Keeper Caoimhin Kelleher, he stepped up for one himself. His attempt flew far over the bar, losing the final for his side.

Probably the memory of Kepa that will be remembered most fondly by the Chelsea fans, the 2021 Super Cup Final against Villarreal brought him back into the goalkeeping picture at Chelsea.

This was the first time Tuchel had brought him on specially for a penalty shootout. This was a decision that was met with a lot of questions at the time and was seen as a massive risk for the German to take, especially regarding how impressive first-choice goalkeeper Édouard Mendy had been recently.

The decision was made, and he repaid the trust that Tuchel had shown to him by saving Raúl Albiol's penalty to win Chelsea the Super Cup and ensure that they progressed to the Club World Cup.

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