Comparing Chelsea’s Kepa Arrizabalaga and Thibaut Courtois

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It has been one of the longest transfer sagas of the summer, but Chelsea have finally sold Thibaut Courtois to Real Madrid, and they have found the man to replace him. That man is Kepa Arrizabalaga, who has joined the Blues for £71 million from Athletic Bilbao, a world record fee for a goalkeeper.

The move for the 23-year-old has almost come out of the blue. After missing out on Alisson, Chelsea was expected to move for Jack Butland, but instead, they have chosen to spend the big bucks on Kepa.

The Spaniard has been bought in as a direct replacement for Thibaut Courtois, who has ended his seven-year spell at the club by moving to Real Madrid in a deal worth £35 million, with Mateo Kovacic moving in the other direction on a season-long loan.

It has been clear for much of the summer that Courtois has been looking to leave Chelsea, with Madrid his favored destination.

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Comparing Kepa and Courtois

There are certainly differences between the two. Kepa is similar in some ways to David de Gea. He is an excellent shot stopper, agile, and has excellent reactions. If anything, he is a better shot stopper than Courtois and given his stature, he is more capable of moving around his goal than Courtois.

If there is one area that Courtois was the best in his field at, it was dealing with crosses. In an era where almost every goalkeeper prefers to punch the ball rather than catch it, the Belgian bucks the trend. He deals with crosses better than probably any keeper in the world at the moment and has the ability to take the pressure off his defense in any situation.

This is a problem that Kepa may face when he first comes to England. We saw de Gea struggle with the physicality of the Premier League when he first joined Manchester United, and it is possible that the same could happen with Kepa. He is the same height as his Spanish counterpart but will hope that he can adapt to English football slightly quicker.

Something new Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri will be looking for is a goalkeeper who is capable with the ball at his feet. Sometimes this proved a bit of a challenge for Courtois, and he often looked a little uncomfortable when trying to pass the ball out from the back.

Kepa is a massive improvement on that. Last season in La Liga, he completed 368 long passes, the most in the division, as well as making 221 successful short passes from 223 attempts. Sarri may expect more from Kepa in terms of short passing, but he is certainly capable of delivering.

One real test for Kepa is how he can deal with the pressure. He is now the most expensive goalkeeper in the history of the game, and everything he does will be under scrutiny. This has never been the case in his career, but it certainly will be now.

He will have to deal with the pressure and try to ignore the criticism if and when he gets it. Courtois always came across as quite relaxed, and although this may not always have been the case, it will have certainly given his defense some confidence.

£71 million is an awful lot of money for any player, let alone a goalkeeper. Kepa has a massive job on his hands to prove he is worth that much, and it may take years for him to do so.