Kepa Arrizabalaga arrived at Chelsea in the shadow of the club’s falling out with Thibaut Courtois. Ten matches in he is practically a god-send.
Having played ten matches already in his young Chelsea career Kepa Arrizabalaga has shown a lot of promise. At his age, he still has a lot to learn and has a lot to adapt to in the Premier League, just as David De Gea did. But as of this point he’s been excellent.
It is going to be interesting to watch Arrizabalaga continue to grow in the team because he has already started so well. He seems to be understanding the Maurizio Sarri system of football well and at times is even a little too cool under pressure. At his age, it’s particularly noteworthy how he already has such good judgment in regards to his distribution. He has not yet made the sort of mistakes Allison Becker has surprisingly made at Liverpool. Arrizabalaga has shown the understanding of when to play short and when to put his hoof through it.
He’s also displayed some visionary shot-reading ability and positioning. On several occasions in Chelsea’s most recent matches, Arrizabalaga has been called upon when he shouldn’t have been. His ability to see the threats so early and position himself in such marvelous defensive areas raises his probability of making saves exponentially.
Both of those factors, coupled with his unbelievable speed and agility, make him quite a foundation for the future of the team. He’s a great building block and appears to be making very good return on Chelsea’s record investment.
Kepa still has to improve his communication with his defenders. That will come with time, particularly given Chelsea’s United Nations-like approach to building the defense. Kepa is going to get better at this with time as he and the rest of the team play together more.
The importance of a goalkeeper’s communication and rapport with his defenders is another reason why it would be best for Chelsea to get one of the young defenders – either Andreas Christensen or Ethan Ampadu – more starts moving forward. David Luiz, though having been better recently than expected, will be transitioning out of the club before long. Having Kepa develop an early relationship with him is not the best long-term planning the club can be doing at the moment.
Kepa also should not be rested. He’s a goalkeeper, and the amount of rest he needs is far less than the outfield players’. He should play every single match to accelerate his growth into one of the best goalkeepers in the world. At the moment he’s showing glimpses of the greats, and he could someday best them. But Chelsea will need to be patient and allow that growth to happen.
Kepa Arrizabalaga has been phenomenal. Ten matches and he’s truly on his way. Well done, chap.