Kepa Arrizabalaga, Maurizio Sarri and a managerial authority at Chelsea that may never recover

It's impossible to get the images of those chaotic last few minutes out of your head, or to ignore their implications on what is to come

Like an embarrassed family whose arguments accidentally spill out into public, Chelsea tried to cover up their differences in front of the media on Sunday night. Maurizio Sarri, a picture of futile rage on the touchline, insisted not too long after that it was all a “big misunderstanding”. Kepa Arrizabalaga, who had seen the board signalling his substitution but decided to stay on the pitch anyway, was now singing from the same hymn sheet. He repeatedly said the whole thing was “misunderstood”, and that it was never his intention to disobey his manager.

As if his media interview did not go far enough, Kepa then posted on social media, signing off that he has “full respect for the coach and his authority”. Regardless of whether or not that is true - we can never really know - it is one of those statements which should never have to be made in the first place.

Similarly, Sarri’s post-match press conference included a defence of his own authority that no powerful manager would ever dream of making. Pointing to the fact that Chelsea defended deeper than normal, not pressing Ederson, and thereby being tighter in defence, Sarri argued that he was still in charge of his players. “If you saw the match, you can understand very well that the players played exactly the match we prepared,” he said. “So I think I am in control, fully in control of the situation.”

But that is not what an in-control manager would ever to have to say. Ultimately the Chelsea message, while impressive for its unanimity, collides with what everyone saw on the pitch or on their TV screens.

It was impossible to get the images of those chaotic few minutes out of your head, or to ignore their implications. Kepa furiously gesturing to the referee, David Luiz and the Chelsea bench that he wanted to stay on, that his injury was just cramp, and he had no intention of watching the penalty shoot-out from the bench.

Even more memorable was the reaction of Sarri himself. He tore his tracksuit from his chest, hurled his water bottle to the floor, and then stormed into the tunnel but not all the way down it. It looked like the desperate anger of a man who believed he was still in control, who tried to exercise his old powers, only to realise that he has no authority left. Like King Lear raging in the storm at his disobedient daughters, wearing a Carabao-branded Nike tracksuit.

For all the damage control Sarri and Kepa tried to do afterwards, you still have to ask whether, say, Jurgen Klopp or Mauricio Pochettino or Pep Guardiola would ever try and fail to make a substitution like that. Even if we accept that it was a breakdown in communication between Sarri, Kepa and medical director Paco Biosca, then what does that say about the experience, efficiency and above all the authority of the Chelsea bench? What sort of coaching staff presides over a shambles like this?

And where does this leave Kepa’s standing with his teammates? David Luiz insisted afterwards that it was a “misunderstanding”, and that of course no player ever wants to come off. But equally there was enough visible evidence on the pitch to make an observer wonder about Kepa’s standing in the dressing room. And not just the anguish on the bench when he decided not to come off, not least from Willy Caballero, the penalty-specialist who was meant to replace him.

It was instructive to watch the scenes immediately after Raheem Sterling’s winning kick had cannoned in off the underside of the crossbar, as the gleeful Manchester City players exploded across the pitch. And how little moral support there was for the dejected Kepa from his Chelsea team-mates. The first people to shake his hand were Jon Moss and his team, and the only conversations of any length he had were with City’s Aymeric Laporte, his former teammate from Club Athletic, and Xabier Mancisidor, the City goalkeeping coach and another fellow Basque. From his Chelsea team-mates, those who could have lifted him up, Kepa just got the most cursory of handshakes.

Kepa did not want to be taken off (Reuters)

Will it be fatal to Kepa’s future at Chelsea? Almost certainly not. He is still a gifted young goalkeeper, the most expensive of all time, and if he does not go on to be a star at Stamford Bridge he will do so somewhere else.

He could play for Chelsea for the next 10 years and all of this will be forgotten. It would be almost unimaginable, in fact, for Sarri to outlast him at the club. But that is part of the problem. Kepa and Sarri both know this, and his managerial authority may never recover.