Lampard admits he’s been ‘really impressed’ with Kepa Arrizabalaga

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Chelsea take on Lille in the Champions League this evening.

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has told Football.London that he has been ‘really impressed’ with goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga this season.’

The Blues beat Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 on Saturday afternoon, which was Arrizabalaga’s first Premier League clean sheet of the season, at the seventh time of asking.

Arrizabalaga will be looking to build on that with another clean sheet tonight, as Chelsea head over to France to take on Lille in their second Champions League group stage game.

The Spaniard, 24, has largely impressed in 2019, and the criticism about the money Chelsea paid to get him has certainly died down in recent times.

Chelsea splashed more than £71million (Telegraph) last summer to sign Arrizabalaga from Athletic Bilbao, and handed him a £150,000-a-week contract too (Spotrac).

Now pushing David de Gea in the Spain setup, Arrizabalaga has been a fairly reliable goalkeeper for Chelsea, and he’s now been praised by Lampard.

Lampard has admitted that he has been ‘really impressed’ with Arrizabalaga, and believes that he has really progressed and developed since the first half of last season.

Lampard did though add that he wants to see Arrizabalaga become more vocal and be more of a leader around the squad, believing that will help him truly become one of the great goalkeepers around.

“I’ve been really impressed with him,” said Lampard. “He’s managed to become Spain’s No1 at the last squad which, when you think about who he’s competing against at that level, is something that’s very serious. He’s a great age for us.”

“I thought the second half of last season particularly, I watched some of the games and some of his saves he was making to help Chelsea through to the Europa League final and get a Champions League spot. He grew as the season went on and he’s grown again now. I’m very happy with him as a player and if anything maybe I can say that in his status and role within the group he can become a bit more vocal and spread that around because I think that’s what great goalkeepers do and that’s part of the process as well,” he added.