CHELSEA captain John Terry said departing goalkeeper Petr Cech was worth 15 points a season in a glowing tribute to the Czech Republic safe hands. Now that’s a big claim -15 points a season! But having played with Cech in the last 11 seasons during which they won four BPL titles, one UCL, one Europa League, four FA Cups and three Capital One Cup titles, definitely JT should know what he’s talking about the “helmet-wearing” goalkeeper.
Putting Terry’s assertion in the right perspectives, Arsenal would have won six of the last 11 BPL titles had Arsene Wenger signed and kept Cech since 2004, imagine! This is because since Cech moved to the Stamford Bridge in 2004, the Gunners were only adrift of the eventual league champions by 14 points or less on six occasions (2004/05, 2007/08, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2013/14 and 2014/15). So if JT’s claims were true, Arsenal would have won the league title in each of the above six seasons.
But no problem, this laudable claim will be put to a good acid test next season when Cech resumes presumably as Gunners first choice in goal (Cech was only a successful medical test away from becoming a Gunner as at the time of writing).
Chelsea and their manager Jose Mourinho reluctantly shook Arsenal’s hand on a reported 11 million pounds move for the want-away goalkeeper who demanded regular first team action. Cech’s position at Chelsea became personally “untenable” after the arrival of young Thibaut Courtois last season which saw the Czech international “downgraded” to Blues second choice after spending a decade at the Bridge as the undisputed No-1.
There’s no doubting the fact that the Blues have lost a world class goalkeeper who still has a minimum of five years of top flight football in him even at a ripe age of 33 years. For the goalkeeper himself, it is obviously a couple of steps backward on the account of the two clubs’ recent achievements and pedigrees, a setback that is far outweighed by the lure of regular first team football as it were.
Perhaps, it’s instructive at this point to remind ourselves of Cech’s impressive record at the Bridge. In his first season with the Blues (2004/05), he kept a record 24 league clean sheets during which he set a remarkable record of 10 consecutive league clean sheets.
He set a new English top flight record (since surpassed by Edwin Van der Sar) when he went 1,024 minutes without conceding a goal between December 2004 and March 2005, clocking 17 straight hours that oppositions had failed to breach his goal.
During this incredible first season campaign when he won both the BPL and the Capital One Cup titles, Cech set the records for the fewest goals conceded (15) and most clean sheets in an English top-flight season (24), leading to the award of the Barclays Golden Glove for 2004/05. Both records still stand till date even after 10 seasons. Gunners faithful would wish for a similar performance from their new acquisition next season no doubt.
Cech recorded 17 BPL clean sheets the following season (2005/06) during which it took until Chelsea’s sixth league game of the season, a 2-1 home win over Aston Villa, for him to concede a league goal for the first time. He kept a total of 485 games for the Blues overall.
That is the world class pedigree of the goalkeeper swapping the Bridge for the Emirates Stadium. Chelsea’s loss certainly is Arsenal’s gain in this deal. However, it remains to be seen whether he would inspire the Gunners to a first league title since the exploits of their famous Invincibles of 2003/04 season.
CECH HONOURS AT CHELSEA
FA Premier League (4): 2004–05, 2005–06, 2009–10, 2014–15
FA Cup (4): 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2011–12
Football League Cup (3): 2004–05, 2006–07, 2014–15
FA Community Shield (2): 2005, 2009
UEFA Champions League (1): 2011–12
UEFA Europa League (1): 2012–13
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