Kepa Arrizabalaga, the goalkeeper for Chelsea, has been named the best in the Premier League.
A recent poll says that Kepa Arrizabalaga is the best goalkeeper in the Premier League this season. This is the cherry on top of a remarkable comeback for him at Chelsea.
Before this season, it’s safe to say that Kepa’s time at Stamford Bridge had been a nightmare. When Chelsea bought him from Athletic Bilbao for £71.6m in 2018, the Spaniard became the most expensive goalkeeper in history. However, his play didn’t live up to the price tag.
After making a number of mistakes, he lost confidence, and when Frank Lampard took over as Chelsea manager, things got even worse.
During the 2019-20 season, Kepa had the lowest percentage of saves among all Premier League goalkeepers. This likely played a role in Chelsea’s decision to sign Senegalese shot-stopper Edouard Mendy in 2020.
Mendy became the starting player and was a key part of Chelsea’s Champions League win in 2021. Kepa’s time at Chelsea seemed to be over, but he has had one of the most surprising comeback stories ever this season.
Mendy has been out of the team for most of this season because of his bad play and injuries to his shoulder and finger. Because of this, Kepa has been in goal for longer than expected, and the 28-year-old has made the most of it.
BetVictor did a study of the 20 starting goalkeepers in the Premier League this season and found that Kepa has the best shot-stopping score. This score is based on the percentage of shots saved and the number of goals stopped per 90 minutes.
Kepa has saved 81.5% of the shots he has faced in the league this season, and he has kept 0.54 goals from being scored every 90 minutes.
Even though Nick Pope of Newcastle and Neto of Bournemouth have slightly better save percentages (82.1% and 83%, respectively), Kepa is the best goalkeeper overall with a 9.73 score.
Kepa deserves a lot of credit because of how his Chelsea career started and how much criticism he has gotten over the last few years.
When Mendy comes back from injury, it will be interesting to see if Graham Potter sticks with his good goalkeeper or goes back to his usual No. 1.
