By Daily Sports on February 26, 2019

A lot has been said about the unfortunate incident recorded at the venerable Wembley stadium on Sunday during the Carabao Cuo final between Manchester City and Chelsea, a match in which the latter won 4-3 on penalties.

Of course the main talking point has been the refusal of Chelsea’s 24-year-old goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga to leave the pitch when he was to be substituted with three minutes left of extra time and with reserve goalie Willy Cabalero standing by in the touchline.

It was drama never seen before. The closest I have personally seen with regard to players questioning a coach’s substitution was when, some years ago, Arsenal’s then manager Arsene Wenger was about substituting Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for Andrei Arshavin in a premier league fixture against Manchester United at Arsenal’s Emirates stadium. It was a feisty match I'm which Arsenal had clawed their way back from a goal down and the young Chamberlain was having a fine game for the Gunners on that day. As the board was raised showing Chamberlain’s number I remember the Arsenal crowd strongly disapproving of the change and the team captain Robbin Van-Persie was also against the substitution and was seen shouting “no, no,” to Wenger.

But the change was made and Chamberlain respectfully left the pitch immediately.

Bizarrely, Kepa chose to do what he did, refusing bluntly to come off and has received, correctly, strong waves of condemnation.

The way I see it, it was simply the case of a misguided young player trying to exploit the precarious position of his under fire manager.

However, I’m quite disappointed with how two persons handled themselves as Kepa misbehaved. I’m talking of the Chelsea Head Coach himself, Maurizio Sarri and the team captain Cesar Azpilicueta.

That Sarri chose to back down and allow Kepa to continue when referee Jon Moss came to the sideline to ask if he would still make the change ,given the keeper’s intransigence, does feed into the narrative that he has lost authority in the dressing room. Sarri should have stood his ground and insisted the change be made and then, one way or the other, Kepa would have been yanked off.

The images would have looked less embarrassing for him surely if it was the player storming out in rage than he the coach doing so and attempting to walk away from the rest of the team and his job as well.

Then criticism must be apportioned to Azpilicueta, the captain who failed to do the job of a leader in the pitch during those ugly moments. The captain is the voice of the coach in the pitch and Azpilicueta should have firmly instructed Kepa to respect the decision of the coach.

John Terry, Chelsea’s immediate past legendary captain agrees with this view when he noted that it was the captain’s duty to sort things out in the pitch in matters of the sort that played out between Kepa and Sarri.

He may have an affinity with Kepa on the basis of a shared friendship and nationality, but class demands that he rose above those and did the job of a team leader before the watching eyes of billions the world over.

In this debacle, none of the Chelsea actors has covered himself in glory. 

Now, Chelsea have done a good job of damage control with the keeper having been fined a week’s wage and he has also apologised personally to the coach. Sarri has, at least publicly, forgiven him.

Kepa has made a big mistake that could dog his career forever, though I would hate to see that happen. He has his job cut out to repair the self-inflicted damage he has caused going forward. Doing so would require staying out of any negative spotlight from now on.

Sarri on his part must learn from this episode and try to understand the underlying cause of players open mutiny against the coach has its roots in many cases in the perceived lack of respect they have received from the coach publicly and privately. 

Chelsea need to be calm and with the top four fight raging between them, Arsenal and Man United, it is safe to say  that they realise that it’s only a largely United house that can stand the battle ahead.

•Photo shows Chelsea’s Head Coach Sarri (L) and captain Azpilicueta

Source Daily Sports

Posted February 26, 2019

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