In a bizarre scene at the end of extra time, the Chelseas goalkeeper refused to be taken off the field in what he later said was a miscommunication.
LONDON — Watching goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga appearing to struggle with a cramp as a penalty shootout loomed to settle the E. F. L. Cup final, Chelsea Manager Maurizio Sarri summoned a substitute from the bench to replace him.
Kepa was furious.
Wildly gesticulating with his arms, Kepa, the world’s most expensive goalkeeper, forcefully indicated to Sarri that he would be ready to face penalties against Manchester City with the final locked at 0-0 and extra time about to end.
But Sarri was determined to bring on Willy Caballero, who saved three spot kicks in the 2016 E. F. L. Cup final while in City’s winning side.
Kepa, who joined Chelsea in August for 80 million euros ($93 million at the time), simply did not leave the field.
“It wasn’t that I was refusing to be substituted,” Kepa said later, after being beaten by four penalties in City’s 4-3 victory in the shootout. “It was a way of trying to tell the bench that I was fine.”
But Kepa’s behavior wasn’t fine at all, according to the former Chelsea captain John Terry.
“Once your number goes up you have to come off and show a bit of respect,” Terry said in the Sky Sports television studio at Wembley. “Deal with that after.”
Publicly humiliated with his authority being undermined, Sarri was furious and initially headed down the tunnel before returning just in time for extra time to end.
