Petr Cech fell out of first team contention under Jose Mourinho and is now making the move across London from Chelsea o Arsenal in one of the most high profile signings this summer, but what can we expect the Czech goalkeeper to bring to the Gunners during his time at the club?
1. Much needed stability in goal
Cech will no doubt provide much needed stability in goal. For years the Emirates faithful have endured keepers who simply don’t match the standard Arsenal should strive for, such as Manuel Almunia, Wojciech Szczesny and more recently, David Ospina. Whilst the aforementioned players have had their high points in between the sticks, their Arsenal careers have been filled with inconsistency and mistakes – Almunia in the 2006 Champions League final, Szczesny in the 2011 Capital One Cup final, and more recently David Ospina in matches against West Brom, Swansea and others.
Petr Cech on the other hand, offers fantastic solidarity in the goal – once notching 26 clean sheets in one season – as well as someone who is fearless, strong, and capable of guiding the Gunners defence. His shot-stopping is unmatched by many goalkeepers, and that will prove key in order to prevent such gaffes from occurring. You simply won’t see the Champions League winner become known as a player who’ll let you down.
John Terry recently further backed this statement, saying Cech can “win you 12-15 points a season”, further demonstrating his ability to turn the game on its head. This is a man with over 220 clean sheets in his Blues career, a simply staggering amount that cannot be overlooked – imagine the frenzy if a striker would’ve signed with 220 goals to his name? The FA Cup champions have lacked a quality goalkeeper since the days of the Invincible Jens Lehmann, and such a man is vital if Arsenal are to consider a legitimate league title challenge in the coming years – Petr Cech is the man to help towards realising this dream.
2. Experience
To win England’s most prestigious trophy takes a mixture of a number of different factors, which must be deployed to the best of their ability. Experience is perhaps one of the most crucial aspects if to challenge for a major trophy, one that would be Arsenal’s first in over a decade, and there are few better to personify such a requirement than Petr Cech. The former Sparta Prague shot-stopper has won every major trophy possible at Stamford Bridge, including the 2012 Champions League, and 4 Premier Leagues.
He has played at the pinnacle of world football for almost a decade, and is still in the peak of his career as a goalkeeper, with a potential 3-4 years at the top of his game left for the 12-time FA Cup winners to make the most of. The only Premier League winner Arsenal currently own is Manchester-bred Danny Welbeck, however even then the Englishman was a peripheral figure compared to other forwards at Old Trafford at the time. If Arsenal are to challenge for the title, they need a player who’s been there and done it, and knows how to tackle the highs and lows of a season with effect.
This signing also showcases how Arsenal are building up a portfolio of players with the ability to take the lead and guide the club to heights which they themselves have previously achieved – Mesut Özil, Alexis Sánchez, Olivier Giroud, Danny Welbeck and now Petr Cech all are players who have claimed the big spoils at their previous clubs. Signing Cech is pushing the club to a level where they have the right balance of experience, youth and talent to carry out a levelled title challenge.
3. A sign of the times
It’s also important to look at the bigger picture; the club as a whole – and what signing the Golden Glove winner means for the progress of the North London side. If you had told any Arsenal supporter in 2010 or 2011 that the Gunners would sign 3 world class players in 3 years, that too in the very near future, the laughter wouldn’t stop. However, now the club is at a point where it can afford, with the infamous Arsenal debt being cleared off, to splash the cash on stellar players. Petr Cech, as well as Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez, embody this new-found desire to win the top trophies, now these funds have been accessed.
Arsenal and Arsène Wenger have done a magnificent job to payoff the cost of the stadium, as well as maintain successive top 4 finishes, and now it is time to switch over into the 2nd stage of the project – to redevelop Arsenal into one of Europe’s elite. Petr Cech is a keeper of the world’s elite, and the matter of that we have bought him from our biggest rival at the moment shows the board’s new mentality, to take risks for the benefit of the club. The sheer audacity of Wenger to challenge such a rival like Mourinho, to go against his wishes over the future of Cech, is another example of how these new boundaries for Arsenal are affecting them. Such risks appear to be working, and as a result we are seeing the dawn of a new era at N5 – an era of world-class players entertaining the tens of thousands in the Emirates Stadium, as well as the millions watching around the world, captivating them with the success to follow, an FA Cup this year, next year even bigger? The signs certainly point to it.
Arsène Wenger is securing the acquisitions that are vital in providing the flair to a trophy win, and now the Emirates debt has been cleared off, we are seeing only the beginning.
4. A sense of leadership
Arsenal are, or were, about to face a slight crisis in terms of finding a leader who would guide the team out every weekend without fail. The current club captain, passing maestro Mikel Arteta, is currently being overlooked in favour of resurgent Francis Coquelin, whose tough-tackling persona offers a different remedy to the opposition attack. Vice-captain Per Mertesacker is slowly falling out of the pecking order, after a poor start to his campaign where he managed to salvage some solid performances towards the end of the season, because of the signing of the younger, talented Gabriel Paulista. As a result, we may be seeing long periods of the season where neither our captain or vice-captain will lead the team out.
Even Jack Wilshere, who has been tipped for the captaincy due to his long attachment to Arsenal, is simply not starting enough to be a solution at the moment. The signing of Petr Cech offers a solution, at least in the short-term. Cech has been known to be a commanding keeper, a player who can instill a sense of passion and commitment into, not just his defence, but the team. Cech has been in the presence of Terry, a fierce Chelsea captain, for over a decade, and has no doubt taken guidance off him. To get to the top of the ladder requires someone who can push you that little bit further to achieve the ultimate goal – Puyol in Barça’s historic sextuple, Roy Keane in the 1999 Manchester United treble-winning side – and whilst by no means Cech is expected to take the club to the aforementioned heights, he possesses the leadership that comes with a certain respect the Arsenal squad will give to him, given his previous successes in world football, credentials that would make him the perfect candidate to lead out Arsenal out in front of the Emirates faithful.
5. Title-winning mentality
Every Arsenal fan has heard it in recent years. At work. At the pub. At the match. The Gunners team has been blasted for being ‘bottlers’ to the largest degree. Bottling the Capital One Cup final, bottling the 2013-14 Premier League challenge, bottling the Champions League knockout stages – even antagonising Arsenal legend and arguably the greatest player to ever play in the Premier League era, Thierry Henry. It’s a tag Arsenal simply can’t seem to shake off, despite winning silverware in consecutive years, and recently recording strong victories against their top 4 rivals.
However, times are changing, and the 8-time Czech footballer of the year is the perfect example of this. The former Rennes player has won all major honours at club level – 4 league titles, 4 FA Cups, 3 League cups, 1 Europa league and the 2012 Champions League, a final in which he became iconic for his heroics – a simple staggering amount. Simply, Cech is not a ‘bottler’. Far from it in fact, and any misconceptions about the current Arsenal side have the potential to be extinguished, as he can pass on such a mentality throughout the squad – a winner’s mentality – to prevent such an event from occurring again.
It is clear that in certain situations, some players in the red and white can experience a mental block. The 6th most capped player in Chelsea’s history can teach the art of winning, how to cope with difficulties, and how to bounce back. This is also the case of other players from ‘superclubs’ that Arsenal have signed (Alexis Sánchez, Mesut Özil) – players who have experienced winning in its highest form, and are able to mentor their new teammates about how to deal with the strains and problems of pressuring moments, in seasons where they’d be challenging for prestigious silverware. We’ll be seeing a new Arsenal squad coming into next season because of what Cech can instil into this group of players – a squad with fearlessness, experience and a belief that they can make it to the top.
Petr Cech is a Gunner, and what a signing he is. The Czech international brings a sense of experience, leadership and an indication of where the club is at the moment – all signs that point to him being the player that can help to solidify an Arsenal trophy win. Petr Cech may just be the catalyst, along with other signings, towards cementing this jigsaw of a squad together, to push Arsenal to glory.
