Manchester United Legendary Goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel believes Kepa Arrizabalaga is the Chelsea player that has benefitted the most from the sacking of Thomas Tuchel.
Eduoard Mendy was the first-choice goalkeeper for Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel despite the Senegalese international recent run of poor form latter part of last season and beginning of the season.
The Senegalese international has lost his place to Kepa Arrizabalaga under Graham Potter. Mendy was injured when Graham Potter arrived at Chelsea. After a series of impressive performances by Kepa Arrizabalaga, the Spaniard has to undouble established himself as Chelsea‘s number.
Kepa has kept 5 clean sheets in 8 appearances for Chelsea under Graham Potter and has conceded 3goals in those matches.
Related Posts
What did Peter Schmeichel say?
Peter Schmeichel said on Stadium Astro: “The stats are incredible and without him, yes, it would’ve looked a lot different for Chelsea, no doubt about that.
“But you know when people ask, ‘what’s the point in changing the manager?’, here you have great proof of what it can do.
“So someone comes into a new squad of players, he’s been working with a certain style of player that he’s done fantastically well with at Brighton, but he comes in [to a squad] with strong players, all of them, big personalities, very expensive, making a lot of money, he comes in and looks at everyone with fresh eyes.
“He comes into a situation where Mendy, who has been fantastic for Chelsea, is out injured so Kepa is playing. He’s looking at this guy and he’s doing really well, he fits in.
“He [Potter] is not bound by former performances, and we see that with his team selection actually all around, he’s been like that.
“He’s come in with fresh eyes and he’s changed the fortunes of one player, Kepa. Kepa’s responded really well, he’s shown us he’s got an incredibly strong mentality, which is like 50 percent of a goalkeeper’s ability, how strong you are between your ears, can you respond to pressure, can you recover from mistakes? It’s all about that with goalkeeping, it’s not so much about the saves, at this level, you have to be able to do that, it’s all about how you recover from what’s not going well.”
Quizzed who he would pick if both Kepa Arrizabalaga and Eduoard Mendy were fit, he added: “I’m not going to say anything about that because I’m not the Chelsea manager and at the end of the day it’s not really my concern if I’m honest
“What you need to have when you play this league and you’re trying to get results and trying to win trophies, is you need to have more than one good player in every position. For Graham Potter, he’s taken over a club who have two fantastic goalkeepers.
“I was here a couple of times during lockdown when the stadium was empty during the Champions League and I was very impressed with Mendy, not only for his goalkeeping but his leadership and how he speaks to his defenders and how he helps them out, I really was impressed by that.
“I think in the last seven games Kepa has played he’s claimed a stake to the position, it’s going to be very difficult for Mendy to get back in.
“From a Chelsea point of view and from Graham Potter’s point of view, it’s a fantastic situation, it must be.”
