Arrizabalaga deserves to start final, says Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel believes Kepa Arrizabalaga "deserves" to start for Chelsea in Saturday's FA Cup final.
Spain goalkeeper Kepa has slipped behind Edouard Mendy in Chelsea's pecking order this season - except in the FA Cup.
The £72million club-record signing has started every match for Chelsea in the competition, and will do so again in Saturday's Wembley showdown with Leicester City.
Blues boss Tuchel has confirmed Kepa will start at the weekend, having featured in Wednesday's 1-0 Premier League home loss to Arsenal.
"He starts the FA Cup final, and we thought it was a good idea to give him the game before," said Tuchel.
"We trust him and he deserves it, that is the basis of why we put him in the line-up.
"He deserves it. He is so close and good in training.
"We wanted to give him some minutes and take both games together.
"It was an unlucky night for him as well."
Kepa was left frustrated by leaking the only goal at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, though it stemmed from Jorginho's mistake.
"Well that was an absolutely OK performance," said Tuchel, afterwards.
"We saw they defended so deep and we wanted to have Mason (Mount), who has a better shot from 18 metres, to be more dangerous from distance, and have an offensive player like Mason there.
"It wasn't that Billy (Gilmour, who was withdrawn tactically) was bad, we just wanted an offensive change for tactical power. We lacked N'Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic in midfield. It is unfair to put it all on his shoulders and he had a fantastic game."