Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga showed a lack of respect to Maurizio Sarri by refusing to be substituted in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, says club legend John Terry.
Kepa twice went down with cramp in the closing stages of extra-time against Manchester City – and Sarri wanted to replace him with Willy Caballero.
But the Spaniard defied his manager’s orders by staying on the pitch for the penalty shootout, which the Blues lost 4-3.
Kepa saved Leroy Sane’s spot kick, but allowed Sergio Aguero’s tame effort to squirm under him after diving the correct way.
Terry, who won every major trophy with Chelsea throughout a 22-year spell, believes the 24-year-old’s actions put a cloud over a strong Blues performance.
He told Sky Sports: “Once your number goes up you have to come off and show a bit of respect.
“Deal with that after. That’s the last thing the players want.
“It’s certainly not the end of it. It’s clouded a good performance.
“It’s taken the shine off a good performance, it’s disappointing. We’ll see what happens.”
Kepa denied going against Sarri’s orders and claimed he was not injured, despite receiving treatment from the club’s medical team.
Sarri also told talkSPORT the row was down to a ‘misunderstanding’.
The Italian’s Chelsea future has been thrown into doubt with his side losing three of the last four Premier League games.
And Terry thinks the Kepa situation leaves Sarri in a difficult place.
He added: “It leaves Sarri in a tough place – I’m surprised he didn’t force him to come off.
“I would expect the manager to deal with it immediately.
“It’ll be interesting how the 48 hours pan out, I thought it was going to be it. There are managers that will have come on and make him come off.
“Is it a tactical time wasting one to force penalties? We don’t know the conversations.”