Joe Cole has claimed that Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga let his side down against Real Madrid tonight.
He claimed whilst doing punditry for BT Sport that comparing the Spaniard to Thibaut Courtois shows the difference in class between the two sides tonight.
Chelsea were soundly beaten 2-0 at the Bernabeu tonight, however circumstances will suggest that they will take that result when heading back to London next week.
Ben Chilwell was sent off in the second half after an error from Marc Cucurella left the England international no real choice when Rodrygo was through on goal.
There will be fingers pointed all over the place when it comes to fault for goals, however there will be a serious amount of blame pointed at the goalkeeper for his part in proceedings.
The Spaniard may feel like he could have done better when it comes to Vinicius Jr’s effort that allowed Karim Benzema to open the scoring, before he got a strong hand to Marco Asensio’s long-range effort in the second half.
Joe Cole originally jumped to the defence of the 28-year-old, before realising the quality of the man in the opposite goal.
He said: “I think they want to protect Kepa, without being over critical because he didn’t make too many mistakes today. They want to get round him, whereas a top goalkeeper, like Courtois, in those moments that’s what you pay the big money for because he’s commanding, his pointing at people telling them what to do, and there’s a leader there.”
There may be a call for Edouard Mendy to be called back into the side in the coming weeks, with Frank Lampard previously having plenty of faith in the Senegal international in his previous tenure at the club.
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