Maurizio Sarri has threatened to drop Kepa Arrizabalaga for Wednesday’s home game against Tottenham for the collective good of the squad and has no regrets over losing his cool during the Carabao Cup final.

Arrizabalaga apologised on Monday to Sarri, his teammates and supporters for refusing the manager’s attempts to substitute him in the final minute of extra time before the penalty shootout won by Manchester City.

The 24-year-old, who saved one spot-kick but might have stopped another from Sergio Agüero, was fined a week’s wages, around £190,000, for an act of petulance that very publicly undermined Sarri’s authority.

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The Italian met the director Marina Granovskaia after Sunday’s final to discuss how best to proceed, with the hierarchy determining the sanction imposed on the world’s most expensive goalkeeper. Yet Sarri, who goes into the Spurs match clinging to his position after recent damaging results, gave Arrizabalaga no guarantees he would retain his place and praised the goalkeeper’s deputy, Willy Caballero, as “a reference point in the dressing room”.

Sarri said he would have to decide if Arrizabalaga started against Spurs. “I don’t know. Maybe yes. Maybe no. I think he is fit. It will be a decision for the [good of the] group. For the other players, all the players. I have to decide for my group. I want to send a message: the message could be Kepa is on the pitch, or Kepa is out the pitch. I have to decide what is better.

“He has to [be ready to play if required]. He made a mistake. A big mistake. There are some consequences. If the consequence is to play, he has to be ready to play. If the consequence is the bench, he has to be ready to go to the bench.”

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On Caballero, who has a reputation as a penalty specialist and would have been seeking to thwart former clubmates had he come on against City, Sarri said: “I think Willy is a very good goalkeeper and he’s a great man. He is a point of reference in the dressing room for his personality, for his behaviour, for everything. So I think he has the maturity to be ready for everything.”

Sarri, who usually reveals Chelsea’s team selection relatively close to kick-off, was so incensed by Arrizabalaga’s conduct that when told by the referee the final was to continue without the substitution, he stormed down the tunnel.

The manager returned moments later having composed himself but had to be restrained by Antonio Rüdiger from confronting the goalkeeper as Chelsea’s players prepared for the shootout. Sarri was also involved in what appeared to be a heated discussion with the Chelsea captain, César Azpilicueta, who would score his spot-kick shortly after.

Yet Sarri denied his anger had disrupted preparations for the shootout. “I needed a minute,” he said. “I was really upset and I needed to return calm and in control of my mind. When the match started again, I was on the bench. And I still spoke with the players [before the shootout], very briefly, because we had only to kick penalties, so I have to say five names. Not tactics.”

Sarri put the failure of senior players other than David Luiz to speak to Arrizabalaga at the time down to the “very unusual situation” that had left them, like the manager, “very shocked”.

Defeat by Spurs could leave Chelsea six points behind the top four and have serious implications for Sarri. Memories of the home support’s angry dismissal of his tactics during last week’s FA Cup defeat by Manchester United are still fresh and the manager, while empathising with the fans’ discontent, urged the crowd to show “more support for my players, and not for me”.

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“The goalkeeper is not a problem,” he said. “He made a big mistake but he is really a very nice boy. There is only one difficulty: the results. The atmosphere in the training ground is really very good. The application of the players is better than before. The problem is to have results with consistency.

“But it’s not easy to play with the same level of application as in the last match because, mentally, we spent a lot in the match on Sunday.”