Frank Lampard has confirmed that outcasted goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga will start for Chelsea against Krasnodar this week, report the Telegraph.
Kepa has been out of the picture at Stamford Bridge ever since Edouard Mendy’s arrival from Rennes over the summer transfer window. His string of fatal errors in the lead up to this arrival sealed his fate.
Mendy has been a revelation, too. Despite a mistake at the weekend against Leeds United, he has been near faultless since he signed along the dotted line – hence Kepa’s continued absence.
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There is some light at the end of the tunnel for Kepa, though. Lampard has confirmed that he will start in the Champions League against Krasnodar this week. He’s quoted by the Telegraph saying:
“Kepa starts. He’s been very supportive of Edu and he’s training well, and that’s the main thing that I look at because training, particularly for goalkeepers because of how close they all are and the one-on-one nature of it, there cannot be a goalkeeper who doesn’t train at a level because they have to push each other and I see that with the group. I’m very pleased with that from Kepa, so his reaction has been spot on, absolutely spot on.”
Chelsea have already ensured that they will qualify for the knockout stages of the competition as group winners, so it’s merely a matter of squad rotation for Lampard. Kepa has not won his place back by any stretch of the imagination.