For once the FA Cup weekend did live up to the hype with Leicester City and Manchester United losing to lower league opponents. West Ham needed extra time in their tie, also making heavy weather of their match at Kidderminster.A special mention for Borehamwood too as they saw off Bournemouth, but even though we only won 2-1 against Plymouth after extra time, we were miles ahead in the play and it would have been a travesty had it gone to penalty kicks, as it so nearly did.Kepa delivered his now regular penalty-stopping routine to save us from the lottery, but to be fair, with Kepa in goal we were big favourites to win the shoot-out anyway.

I wish I knew why some keepers seem so much better at saving penalty kicks than others. Maybe some are just luckier and guess the right way more often. I am not convinced by that, but these days if the keeper does go the right way, then unless it is hit with pace and power and it also hits the side-netting right by the post, the keeper will save it most of the time.Maybe some keepers are just better at remembering the notes they are given beforehand by the coaches. I think some of them show their hands too early, in that they make up their minds and go either left or right too soon and make the player’s mind up for him. Even so, I reckon it mostly comes down to the ability of certain goalkeepers to read body shape.Just before you strike a ball the great stoppers can gauge which way the ball is likely to go. You can give the keeper ‘the eyes’ and that might work, looking one way and hitting it the other, but body positioning is something different again. I reckon Kepa is better than most at this specific ‘skill’ when it comes to penalties. I suspect most keepers don’t know exactly what they are reading or how they are doing it, it is just inbuilt or ingrained by years of training.

Even some of the best keepers weren’t great at reading body shape with penalties but were fantastic at it in open play or when it came down to one v ones. My old mate Neville Southall was like that for Everton. Even if he never seemed to save a penalty for us while he was being acclaimed as the best stopper on the planet, his reactions to close-in shots were unnaturally good.Then again, maybe it isn’t really about the number of penalties saved or the percentage saved, when you consider who is the best to have between the posts from 12 yards. Petr Cech might not be the top statistically, but when you look at the importance of the penalties he saved then big Petr can claim to be right up there. He didn’t do too badly in the Champions League final in Munich!It is vital to get the penalties sorted, especially when you are trying to get to finals these days. I have been watching Afcon a great deal this time round and the importance was only underlined in the final when Sadio Mane won the entire tournament for Senegal with his belted final penalty into the corner of the Egyptian net, having had one saved during the actual game.Vitally for Senegal, our own Edouard Mendy had saved a crucial penalty beforehand to give Mane the shot for glory. So, it was two Chelsea keepers saving penalties within hours of each other to secure victories. Maybe Mendy can claim his was more important in a worldwide sense, and if we are honest with ourselves, we would probably have to agree.

As everyone knows, the goalies rarely get the headlines and even at the weekend there were far more column inches devoted to Romelu Lukaku not scoring, even as we had those 41 efforts on goal, than there were about Kepa saving the day at the death. It is always a shame because when a keeper does make a mistake you can bet your bottom dollar he will be the focus of attention, sometimes for weeks and months afterwards.They understand the deal and they do get their chance for glory in the penalty shoot-outs. This season, maybe more than any other with fewer replays in the knockout tournaments, they will be called on more often.In Afcon this time, six of the 16 knockout games went to penalty kicks, that is 37.5 per cent for those interested. It may be the same in other cup competitions and considering how many cups we are still currently involved in, I reckon practising and thinking about pens is right up there with the most important things you should be doing in training week in week out.Tomorrow we play in the semi-final of the Club World Cup and yes, that could go to penalty kicks too. Anyone who thinks that is very unlikely, I urge you to have a look at the quality of the finishing from Al Hilal when playing against Al Jazira in the quarter-final. This is far from a walkover into the final at the weekend, so maybe the likes of Jorginho will be expected to strut his stuff from 12 yards, if not tomorrow then maybe on Saturday in the next game.

Al Hilal did score six goals but as mentioned before, it was the quality and the speed of the play leading up to the goals that impressed. I hope they play in the same open, cavalier style against us, as that would be much fairer for our strikers who are suffering from being suffocated by numbers every week at home.Romelu was surrounded by two, sometimes three defenders again at the weekend and struggled to find space while trying to shake them off. It is no surprise so many coaches, including Thomas Tuchel, have been putting so much emphasis on late runners who are harder to mark, but it is the strikers who suffer.Maybe the strikers should just concentrate on taking penalties. At least they don’t get marked when they are standing on the spot!