Kepa Arrizabalaga is the only Chelsea player to play every minute of the Graham Potter reign so far and he says the mood in the dressing room is a positive one following a run of four wins on the bounce.
The Spaniard made his first appearance of the season in our opening Champions League contest against Dinamo Zagreb over a month ago now, which also happened to be Thomas Tuchel’s final game in charge.
He has since responded well to being selected in every outing by our new head coach Potter, keeping three clean sheets from four.
‘We are very happy. It has been important week for us, we didn’t start the group stages in the best way. We needed to win both games against AC Milan,’ Kepa said.
‘Sometimes these types of games happen. It was a huge fight, we were focused and calm. We spoke about that in the changing room at half-time [on Tuesday night].’
When asked to explain what life has been like under the new manager, the fourth of his Blues career, Kepa himself admits he has noticed an up-turn in both results and performances.
‘He has started in the best way. We are improving, we have had only one month but we’re doing well, there is a long way to go,’ the goalkeeper said.
‘We are understanding his ideas. We have games every three days so it is a really important time, but we need all the team in every game to fight for titles towards the end of the season.
‘We met each other in the group stage in the Europa League a few years ago,’ Kepa revealed, recalling his Athletic Bilbao days back in 2017.
‘We had a talk about that because I didn’t know at that moment he was the manager of Ostersund. It is so good to be back with him.’