Tag: Kepa

I’m not sure if it was a serious suggestion or just someone taking the piss, but it was put to Enzo Maresca in Friday’s press conference if there was any chance we might recall Kepa Arrizabalaga from his loan.

The head coach may have been coy on other questions about the goalkeeping situation at Chelsea, but he was pretty clear on this one.

“No. Absolutely not.”

Good to know that things are not quite so bad just yet that we might consider Kepa the “solution” (even if he is having a decent enough season at Bournemouth).

But make no mistake, things are far from great right now. With just one win in seven despite facing three of the league’s bottom five during that time, the team’s form has cratered, as the attack has gone cold and the defense has stayed cold. Robert Sánchez’s mistakes — of the directly leading-to-goals kind … or of just the casually destabilizing random-pass-to-the-opposition kind … or maybe just the kicking-it-aimlessly-forward-or-out, kind — have only served to exacerbate our shortcomings, torpedoing the possibly already sinking boat just to make sure.

Maresca has continued to give his public backing to our anointed man between the sticks, but surely not even he can continue to trot him out there right now in actual good faith.

“The decision [of who will start], we have two or three days. The good thing is; any decision I take, I feel good because every time Filip has played since we started, he has done well. Filip or Robert, we will see but any decision will be okay.

“[…] Sometimes it can happen [to take the goalkeeper out of the spotlight]. It is not only in Robert’s case. Already this season, it happened with Alisson, no? He was okay but he was on the bench for some games. The other day, I was reading about Donnarumma that this season with PSG, he was playing always but for some games, Luis Enrique left him out and now he is playing games and doing well. Sometimes, for sure, it can be a solution but it doesn’t mean this is Robert’s case.”

‘[From the start of the season] the number one choice was Robert. For sure, if the number one is Robert and then because we have two good goalkeepers, we can make some different decisions. This doesn’t mean that Robert can make a mistake every game and is always going to play. The number one choice was Robert and we will see on Monday.”

-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London

Marcus Bettinelli it is then. Glove up, Betts!

Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images