Former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann thinks Gunners boss Mikel Arteta should \u201cstick with\u201d Kepa Arrizabalaga for the FA Cup quarter-final tie against Southampton.<\/strong><\/p>\n The 31-year-old was to blame for Manchester City\u2019s opener as the Gunners lost 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final<\/strong> last weekend, but Lehmann doesn\u2019t believe that should alter Arteta\u2019s thinking on who starts in goal:<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not stick with him? Kepa is a good keeper and he\u2019s up for the cup games.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou should give him playing time because something could happen to Raya and then you need a good backup on the bench who is full of confidence and knows he has the trust of his manager.\u201d<\/p>\n Kepa played all six games in the Carabao Cup, and he has featured in the first three rounds of the FA Cup, having also been given a run out in the final Champions League group game versus Kairat Almaty back in January.<\/p>\n As Kepa has started every cup game, there is no reason to believe that he will be dropped for the Southampton fixture, but other considerations may come into play.<\/p>\n Arsenal will want to rebuild some momentum after the international break, and while the hopes of a quadruple have been dashed, a treble is still very much on the cards.<\/p>\n For that to happen, they need an error-free performance against Southampton. The Saints will not be pushovers. They are making a late push for the playoffs in the Championship.<\/p>\n With that in mind, Arteta may feel that selecting Raya is the right call to give his team the best possible chance of securing an important result.<\/p>\n Read more about the Arsenal First Team Squad for 2025\/26 here<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/article><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann thinks Gunners boss Mikel Arteta should \u201cstick with\u201d Kepa Arrizabalaga for the FA Cup quarter-final tie against Southampton. The 31-year-old was to blame for Manchester City\u2019s opener as the Gunners lost 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final last weekend, but Lehmann doesn\u2019t believe that should alter Arteta\u2019s thinking on who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Kepa has started every domestic cup tie this season<\/h2>\n
Since joining from Chelsea for \u00a35m last summer, the Spaniard has made 10 appearances in total for the Gunners.<\/p>\nWill Arteta swap his keepers?<\/h2>\n