There can be very few complaints from Arsenal fans after we got our sixth home win in a row and made it into the last 8 in the Europa League, Petr Cech said that the players promised each other before the game to put in a big performance even if we ended up going out. “Yes, we were talking about it in the dressing room before the game.” Cech told Arsenal.com. “We said that if we were meant to go out, we’d go out with a big performance. Sometimes you give a big performance, you do everything right, you are unlucky and you can go out. When you perform at the level we did today, you know that you have a chance to go through. As soon as the game started, you could see the way the team played and fought together. You know that you are giving yourselves a chance. We scored goals at important times and kept a clean sheet, which is what you need in a game like that.”
He admitted that they couldn’t relax even after going 2-0 up after 20 minutes either although it was great to pull back the deficit quickly. “That’s very important, but this game was a tricky situation because at 2-0 up, you’re through, but they just need one goal. You know that you need the third goal regardless, and even then, if they score once, you’re going to extra-time. The 3-1 loss away put us in a very difficult situation, but we knew how to deal with that and we got what we deserved.
“My dream goes on – my dream is to retire with a trophy in my hands. Today we gave ourselves the chance for me to finish like this. There’s a long way to go but with performances like that, we can compete.”
It may have worked out perfectly for Cech that Bernd Leno arrived this season and demoted him to being the cup keeper. He has rarely had the chance to play so much in Europe with Arsenal before now. Keep the dream going Petr. So far so good!
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