Kepa Arrizabalaga's EFL Cup Finals: A Tale of Three Failures
Kepa Arrizabalaga and the EFL Cup: Three Finals, Three Nightmares
For most players, three EFL Cup finals would be a proud line on the CV. For Kepa Arrizabalaga, they read like a trilogy of footballing misfortune, each chapter more brutal than the last.
From the mutiny of 2019, through the specialist failure of 2022, to a 2026 relapse in Arsenal colours, every final has left a scar. No trophy, no redemption arc. Just a goalkeeper whose relationship with this competition veers from chaotic to catastrophic.
Here is how his three finals stack up, from bad to utterly ruinous.
3) 2019 – Chelsea: The Refusal
The moment that defined Kepa’s early Premier League career didn’t involve a save, a mistake, or even the ball. It involved a refusal.
Deep into extra time of the 2019 final against Manchester City, with cramp apparently troubling his goalkeeper, Maurizio Sarri signalled for a change. Willy Caballero, a renowned penalty specialist and former City keeper, stood ready on the touchline.
Kepa simply wouldn’t go.
What followed was extraordinary. Sarri raged on the touchline, the fourth official waited, the stadium buzzed in disbelief. Kepa stayed put. The substitution never happened. The images of Sarri storming down the tunnel, then returning in fury, are now etched into modern Wembley folklore.
To his credit, Kepa then produced a solid 120 minutes. He kept a clean sheet against City’s attack and even saved Leroy Sané’s effort in the shootout. It still wasn’t enough. City won 4-3 on penalties, Chelsea lost the final, and the story became less about the result and more about the power struggle.
This was Kepa’s debut season in English football after arriving from Athletic Bilbao as the world’s most expensive goalkeeper. That price tag already carried pressure. The defiance on the Wembley turf only magnified every doubt. Was he worth it? The answer, even then, was starting to tilt in the wrong direction.
Years on, nobody talks about the clean sheet. They remember the rebellion.
2) 2026 – Arsenal: The Flap That Opened the Door
By 2026, Kepa had a different badge on his chest but the same old EFL Cup story.
Arsenal arrived at Wembley as Premier League leaders, intent on underlining their supposed superiority over Manchester City. Mikel Arteta made a bold call: Kepa started ahead of David Raya in goal, a decision that instantly framed the narrative. It was a trust exercise on the biggest domestic stage.
It went badly.
The key moment came with the opening goal. Rayan Cherki swung in a cross, not especially vicious, not especially unplayable. Kepa came for it and got nowhere near enough on the ball. He flapped, it dropped, and Nico O’Reilly pounced from close range.
City don’t need invitations. That mistake handed them one on a silver platter. Once they had the foothold, with that familiar, ruthless mentality, they never looked likely to let it go.
Kepa’s afternoon might have turned even darker. Charging out of his area to challenge Jeremy Doku, he ended up grappling with the winger and was fortunate to see only yellow. The angle of the attack spared him from a red card and the infamy of denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.
This defeat wasn’t solely his. Arsenal wasted chances, City controlled the big moments, and the leaders shrank on a day that demanded conviction. Still, the first goal belonged to Kepa. In a final of fine margins, his error set the tone, and City did the rest.
Another EFL Cup final. Another Kepa subplot. Another medal handed to the opposition.
1) 2022 – Chelsea: The Specialist Who Failed
If 2019 was about defiance and 2026 about a costly mistake, 2022 was about a role Kepa was brought on specifically to master – and completely failed.
Thomas Tuchel made a calculated decision late in the final against Liverpool. With penalties looming, he took off Edouard Mendy and sent on Kepa as the shootout specialist, the man supposedly primed for this exact scenario.
It turned into a grim comedy.
Liverpool stepped up 11 times. Eleven penalties went past him. Kepa didn’t stop a single one. Every red shirt that walked from the centre circle left with the same outcome: ball in the net, goalkeeper beaten.
Then came the twist. After 21 perfect penalties, it was Kepa’s turn. The goalkeeper, who had been introduced to be the hero, now had to keep the shootout alive with his own kick.
He ballooned it over the bar.
In terms of a specialist assignment, it was as brutal as it gets: brought on for penalties, failed to save any, then missed the decisive one himself. A complete collapse of the script Chelsea had written for him.
By then, Kepa had already been eased out of the starting XI by Mendy. This final offered a chance, however slim, to reclaim some authority, to remind the club and the wider game of his value. Instead, it reinforced the doubts. Penalty shootouts are a harsh way to judge a goalkeeper, but this was impossible to spin in his favour.
He did claw back more game time the following season, a brief resurgence before his Chelsea chapter closed. Yet whenever his name and the EFL Cup collide, that 2022 shootout will always sit at the top of the pile.
Three finals. Three different clubs’ eras. Three very different kinds of failure.
For Kepa Arrizabalaga, the EFL Cup hasn’t been a stage for glory. It’s been a mirror, reflecting every question that has followed him since that record-breaking move: talent, temperament, timing.
The real issue now is simple: after all this, who will trust him with the next big final?
