Things got heated between Carragher and Redknapp in tense debate about Kepa being subbed on

Chelsea’s Kepa Arrizabalaga was at the centre of controversy during the Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool on Sunday evening.

Thomas Tuchel rolled the dice in the closing minutes of extra time at Wembley Stadium by taking off Edouard Mendy in place of the world’s most expensive goalkeeper just as he did in the UEFA Super Cup.

It certainly felt like a heady moment when you consider that Kepa had refused to exit the pitch when Maurizio Sarri attempted the exact same tactic with Willy Caballero during the 2019 final of the same competition.

Nevertheless, Tuchel put his faith in the statistics with Kepa not only having shone in the Villarreal showdown off the bench, but also as a starter earlier in the tournament against Aston Villa and Southampton.

But as we all know, the tactic didn’t work this time around with Kepa conceding a penalty to every single Liverpool player, before having the pressure of stepping up to take a spot-kick himself.

The result was a painful one with the 27-year-old ultimately shovelled a poor effort over the crossbar to spark scenes of delirium amongst the Liverpool players, staff and supporters.

A penalty miss can happen to anybody and it’s especially cruel when it befalls a goalkeeper, but the way in which the shootout unfolded nevertheless had people wondering: should Kepa have been subbed on?

Besides, if you were to tell someone without any footballing knowledge at all that a ‘keeper was brought on especially for a shootout in which they conceded 11 spot-kicks and missed the decider, they’d think it was barmy.

But by the same token, Kepa has a superior record to Mendy in penalty shootouts and the chances of him having to take a spot-kick himself were incredibly slim, so there was certainly