It seems a long time ago now, but it was so painful for Arsenal fans that I doubt I will ever forget the feeling as I watched the Gunners slump to a 2-0 defeat by West Ham on the opening day of this season. All that belief, positivity and excitement washed down the toilet in the space of 90 minutes.
What made it so much worse though, was that the only signing of the summer and the player that was responsible for so much of our confidence in a Premier League title challenge was directly responsible. Petr Cech had a nightmare and didn´t the Chelsea fans make the most of it?
They had stitched us up and sold us a dud who was past his best, blah, blah, blah. It was a tough time for Arsenal and must have been even harder for the new keeper. Fast forward a few weeks and four games later; Cech has conceded just one more goal and only Man City and Leicester have more points. The Czech international is understandably proud of the way he and the team have bounced back.
He told Arsenal Player, “I think if you spill the milk or coffee in your kitchen you don’t just let it lay there, you wipe it off and clean it. It is the same thing when you do something wrong, you just take the first opportunity to make this right and correct it.
“This is the only way. When you know the world well, you are prepared and if a bad game happens it is probably part of football and you need to understand that.
“I had a great pre-season, I was feeling well going into the game, excited to play my first home game. Then obviously the game did not go according to plan for everybody, particularly me.
“But we recovered from there and it was good to see the reaction of the team because it was a big blow as we had wanted to start on a winning note.”
He seems to have organised the defence and given them confidence and assurance, even managing to rescue Chambers and Gabriel from their horrible first half against Liverpool. And meanwhile his former club has the worst defensive record in the league.
Could it be that Arsenal now have the leader that many thought we have lacked for years, while Chelsea have lost it from their own dressing room?