LONDON — Watching goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga appearing to struggle with a cramp as a penalty shootout loomed to settle the E.F.L. Cup final, Chelsea Manager Maurizio Sarri summoned a substitute from the bench to replace him. Kepa was furious. Wildly gesticulating with his arms, Kepa, the world’s most expensive goalkeeper, forcefully indicated to Sarri that…
MANCHESTER, England — As he trudged, wordlessly, away from the field, away from the crowd, away from the burning humiliation, Maurizio Sarri looked like a man who knew. He is not the first in his position to have worn that look, to have made that walk, to sense that, sooner or later, Chelsea has a…
Chelsea has paid Borussia Dortmund $73 million to complete the signing of Christian Pulisic, making the 20-year-old the most expensive American player in history by some distance. Though moving to the Premier League has “always been Christian’s dream,” according to Dortmund’s technical director, Michael Zorc, Pulisic will have to wait six months for it to…