Arsenal shot-stopper Petr Cech has come under fire from his clubs fans this week, and I for one think it is completely unfounded.
The 34 year-old joined our club from rivals Chelsea in the summer of 2015 and has been a huge upgrade on a number of our previous number ones.
Cech is the record holder for most clean sheets in the Premier League era, and also holds the best clean-sheet per appearance of those who have 100 or more shut-outs in the PL, with one every 0.48 matches on average.
Our club as a whole has suffered a loss a form in recent weeks, and some fans have taken to Twitter to slam the former Czech international, with one fan even claiming we were duped into signing him.
https://twitter.com/aliladiere/status/826731452276547585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
I would love to hear that this is only a minority opinion, especially as the Watford goals were hardly his wrong-doing. Too many fans are usually too quick to throw someone under the bus, and this for one has me astounded.
David Ospina has shown he is more than up to the challenge of deputising in his place, but he doesn’t command the back-four in the way the former Chelsea man does, nor does he have the shot-stopping ability in my opinion.
Cech coming up against his former side this weekend is hardly a reason to want him dropped from the starting XI either, as he has a point to prove having been dislodged by Thibaut Courtois between the sticks, and there is no way he would go into the game wanting to be upstaged by his younger counter-part.
Do we really want Cech to be dropped this weekend? Is he really at fault for many concessions this term?
Pat J
Of course he was at fault on many occasions and it seems somehow he has lost his magics. He often failed to stop ground balls that came near the post and concede more goals from set pieces. However, he is still my number Arsenal keeper despite Ospina’s good performance in the FA cup and CL competitions.
He is still my number one goal keeper for Arsenal though he requires to avoid some of his silly mistakes. Otherwise, he has a good vision and commanding ability.
No he doesn’t deserve to be targeted because the rest of the midfield and defence have shown real fragility again defensively this season. On too many occasions we’ve been cut to pieces repeatedly by not very good teams. Having said that, I do feel the magic has rubbed off this season and he has been in so-so form. I’m also not wild about his distribution. I don’t think he’s as good as Ospina there. However Ospina terrified me against Southampton with some of his decision making and we only avoided punishment because the Saints were so awful.
His distribution is no good and is beaten in shots that go in the lower corners of the goal. Right now we have bigger problems like playing poorly for 50 minutes in a game.
We are out of it regardless of win tomorrow or not. If we win we will then close gap again next week Burnley can take something out of Chelsea at home. But it is false hope, you know after that Arsenal will slip again. Even if we were in Chelsea position right now, 9 points clear at the top, even then it wouldn’t be safe for Arsenal.
They lost against Everton, you thought there would be a response against City, they watched the whole second half go by, like literally they just watched them play the second half.
Amongst the top 4 we have lost the highest number of games at 4. Normally champions dont lose more than 5 games per season so if Chelsea beat us tommorrow we pretty much have to win all the remaining 14 games..I don’t see that happening. Man utd, Tottenham, City and Southampton will take points off of us.
When there is a stoppage in play, someone injured or preparing for corners, there is a big tell tale sign why Arsenal are poor. No one even talks to one another, Only Mustafi. If you were to take the Armband away you’ld think Mustafi was the Captain not Koscielny.
What happens when we concede a goal? Everyone just looks down and walks back to their position for kickoff, there is no rallying from any player, again only from Mustafi sometimes.
The DM Coquelin has even gone soft these days, sometimes even clumsy. Less challeneges made from him since his introduction to first team. He was also vocal at one point, not any more.
Some of the players put more words on their tweets than the entirety of a single game. Obviously there even some that talk rubbish to media when we win one game, and then dead silent after we lose a game.
Nail on the head.
There is no communication when on the field, as you said, when there is a break in play, they should be talking to each other, not standing around with their hands on their hips, or crouching down, by themselves in the middle of the pitch, they don’t even speak to the manager for gods sake!
There is not one leader in the whole squad, Alexis shows glimmers of it, but ends up looking sulky, I remember when Coq came back to the club and was put into the team, there was one occasion were we went a goal up, all the players were celebrating and Coq was the one telling them to focus and think, I thought good lad. Unfortunately he’s gone quiet like the rest of them.
The only one who seems to want to organise things is Mustafi, whether it’s Wenger or someone else in charge next season, they should look at him as being the captain, give him some authority to bollock them if they’re not doing their job, praise them if they do well, and give them direction when needed.
Don’t get your hopes up if we win tomorrow.
People will always point to one who hasn’t played, because nobody can prove it either way. Cech sometimes (on occasion) can do much better you’d imagine (which keeper can’t), but he doesn’t be at fault, nor does he cause calamities, so I would not point to our bench for the savior. One thing I was thinking, for when I’d point to the bench, is with penno’s. If we really need as penno saved ..I’d think about making the switch then. Not sure how Petr would take this, but it might surprise us in a good way. Also I reckon that would be a very good way of delaying the game and putting off the kick taker.
Have to disagree-
Let’s assume the miracle doesn’t happen an the penalty taker scored-
What does that say about your confidence in the keeper?
Does that mean you switch back to original keeper, or keep with new keeper that didn’t save penalty.
Think you are onto a lose / lose with that approach