His first touch, receiving a pass-back, was met with huge cheers from the fans in Singapore but it was not, and I don’t think it was ever expected to be, a game in which we could make some solid judgements on Petr Cech. It is often the case with pre-season that we simply get a bit of a feel of how things are going to be, an impression rather than a good indicator. Given the almost total domination of the game by Arsenal, and the incredibly limited number of opportunities Everton were allowed, that is especially the case here for Cech’s first appearance.
He had little to do for the vast majority of the game, meaning that what we saw were simply glimpses of what we may be able to expect in the future. At least we found out he can hold his concentration for long periods of time.
Cech will be disappointed to have conceded, despite the fact there was little he could do about Ross Barkley’s strike after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave the ball away. He had (and after the goal still continued to) put in a solid performance, almost faultless, deserving of a clean sheet to mark his unofficial debut – his competitive, official debut will come against his old club, Chelsea, in the Community Shield on the 2nd of August. He had done all he was required to do and more, making a fantastic save late in the first half to tip an offside header on to the crossbar before the whistle blew and another just after the 50 minute mark to prevent Luke Garbutt from long range, pushing the strike away to his left.
He showed very clearly why he has been brought in ahead of David Ospina and Wojciech Szczesny. Cech controlled his area and was incredibly positive, coming for the ball whenever he could to kill any potential Everton chances – Szczesny seems to have an extreme lack of control when he attempts to do this, whereas Ospina usually prefers to sit back on his line and hope for the best, or if he does come for a corner it’s usually flappy and unconvincing. It was a refreshing change to see an authoritative, effective punch away.
As well as this, Cech’s handling was solid throughout the game, catching the vast majority of what he had to deal with and only parrying when it was absolutely necessary. There was never a risk of him fumbling or spilling the ball – once he had it, it was his. Meanwhile Ospina, who always seems to be in a permanent state of either mini- or full blown panic, appears to prefer the option of waving at the ball and hoping it goes away. Even if by some miracle he does attempt to catch it he’s just as likely to spill it into his own net as actually hold on to it.
Cech’s goal-kicks, an aspect usually overlooked, but of reasonable importance, were also much better than those of his theoretical competitors for the first choice spot at Arsenal. They were always – unless clearly intended otherwise – deep inside the opposition half, and almost always directly to a teammate. His ability to launch attacks like this is something we have desperately missed with Ospina, who kicks like he’s concerned someone may have hidden a small animal inside the ball and he doesn’t want to hurt it. With Giroud up front and able to knock the ball down for his teammates to run through, it appears Cech may actually have a positive effect on the team going forward, not something that was really at the front of fans’ minds when we signed him.
It was of course just the one game, and we can only create an impression from the glimpses we got. We will find out considerably more about Cech and how important he’s really going to be as the season goes on. But from his first outing, the signs are good.
