Kepa Arrizabalaga Chelsea
Kepa Arrizabalaga Chelsea

Chelsea’s Kepa Arrizabalaga and Manchester United’s No 1 David De Gea are two of the biggest keepers in the English Premier League. And as luck would have it, both of them have been going through a torrid time over the past year and a half.

Both the Spanish keepers had made more than half a dozen silly errors during the 2019/20 season and it seems like they have brought that bad luck to the new campaign as well.

Against Liverpool, Kepa Arrizabalaga practically gifted a goal to Sadio Mane while David De Gea has also made his fair share of mistakes over the past couple of months.

While most pundits and fans are urging their respective clubs to get rids of the two keepers, Everton legend Neville Southall has urged Kepa and De Gea to follow the example of boxing legend Anthony Joshua.

“When you’re an experienced goalkeeper, you have a track record that everybody judges you against,” Southall said, as reported.

“De Gea’s suffered from that, most people do when you get to a certain age, which is weird because you’ve already proved you can do it.

“De Gea’s proved he can be close to being the best in the world, but everybody doubts his ability, which for me doesn’t make sense.

“It’s like Anthony Joshua proving he’s the best heavyweight in the world, because he’s got the belts, and then losing one fight.

“Yes, the defeat spoils things for a bit but he won it back. I think there’s a lesson in Anthony Joshua for all of those goalies – you might get a knockout blow, but you get back on your feet and you go and smash the rest of the world.

“Footballers are the prime ministers of the football world, aren’t they? Everybody hates you or everybody loves you, depending on what you do for them. Like a prime minister you live and die on your decisions. Sometimes you make good ones and sometimes they’re bad. The best goalkeepers make the least bad decisions.

“Kepa, he’s young. It’s a learning process for him, maybe this season he might do a little better. [Frank] Lampard maybe doesn’t seem to rate him that much, but he’s obviously got talent.

“He’s got to believe in himself and get better. If you’re having a bad time, the only thing is to relax, know what you’ve done wrong and change it. There’s no easy fix, it’s about confidence.

“If you’re not having the best of times and the manager isn’t picking you, it’s a double blow, but you’ve got to think what you really want. Do you want to show them that you’re better, what you’re really like? Chelsea haven’t got an exceptional goalkeeper at the moment. For me, I’d give him another season.”

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