Kepa Arrizabalaga EFL Cup final calamities ranked by disastrousness after latest loss with Arsenal

Kepa Arrizabalaga has now played three and lost three EFL Cup finals, and all will be be remembered for the wrong reasons.

Chosen to start in goal instead of Arsenal ‘s usual goalkeeper David Raya in the 2026 final against Manchester City , Kepa lost on the big stage for a third time.

He first tasted defeat in the 2019 and 2022 finals with Chelsea , before being on the losing side with a quadruple-tipped but trophy-shy Arsenal .

But which of his EFL Cup final appearances has been the biggest disaster? There has been no glory from any of them, but we’ve ranked his role in the three defeats in ascending order of calamity.

Kepa was the centre of attention towards the end of extra time of the 2019 final, when he infamously refused to be substituted.

His then-Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri believed he needed to come off because of cramp, but Kepa defied his orders and stayed on.

Chelsea went on to lose the penalty shootout to Manchester City ; Kepa did save one of the penalties, by Leroy Sane, but his side lost 4-3.

This was during Kepa’s debut season in English football after becoming the world’s most expensive goalkeeper on the back of his move from Athletic Bilbao. It only served to amplify questions about whether he was worth it. SPOILER: He was not.

In his defence, he did manage to keep a clean sheet against City over 120 minutes of action, but fast forward to the present day and the pictures of him defying Sarri’s orders are far more memorable as a lasting image.

Arsenal went into the 2026 final as the Premier League leaders, hoping to send another reminder of their supposed authority over their closest challengers.

Kepa was at fault for the first goal Arsenal conceded, but their loss in the final wasn’t all about him.

Granted, he was arguably lucky to stay on the pitch after being shown just a yellow card for grappling with Jeremy Doku after coming out of his area; the width of the angle rescued him from being the denier of a clear goalscoring opportunity.

The main criticism of the Spaniard came for his role in the opening goal. He flapped at a cross by Rayan Cherki, with the ball dropping for Nico O’Reilly to convert from close range.

It gave City the foothold in the game that – with their serial-winner mentality – they would refuse to concede.

Having refused to come off as a substitute in the 2019 final, Kepa came on from the bench in the 2022 final, specifically for the penalty shootout.

Comically, though, he conceded all 11 efforts by opponents Liverpool and then missed the decisive kick in sudden death by blazing the ball over the bar.

In terms of being up to the task of a specialist sent on to do a specialist job, it was an epic failure.

Chelsea would not have expected to be calling on Kepa as a penalty taker when Thomas Tuchel sent him on, but failing to save any penalty he faced did not reflect well on him.

By this point, Kepa had already been phased out of the Chelsea team after the signing of Edouard Mendy. Although it’s slightly unfair to judge a keeper solely on penalty shootouts, his efforts in the final did not remotely boost his chances of reclaiming the regular starting berth.

In an unexpected turn of events, he did actually manage to claw back the more prominent share of gametime the following season, but that would turn out to be his last as an active Chelsea player.