There has been a lot of talk in the football media and plenty of concern among the Arsenal fans out there after our only signing of the summer endured a nightmare on his competitive debut. Even though Arsene Wenger refused to lay too much blame at his feet, the fact is that Petr Cech and his two glaring errors in goal cost us all three points against West Ham.
But while the Chelsea fans have been gloating all week and Jose Mourinho took the chance to say that his club was not missing their former number one, the Czech Republic international has been publicly backed by the last Arsenal keeper to lift the Premier League trophy, Jens Lehmann.
As reported by the Evening Standard, the former Gunners star declared that Cech is just too good to not bounce back from this early setback and that he will still prove to be an excellent signing for Arsenal.
Lehmann said, “It surprised me because I expected him to be really good from the beginning.
“But sometimes it takes a while to adapt to a new club, particularly when you are coming from a major enemy like Chelsea. It takes time, if he can forget about it at all.
“On the other hand, Chelsea disappointed him because he couldn’t play there last season. He has seen the cruelty in football – you are a hero one year and the next year you are not even playing any more.
“That could spur him on to play a fantastic season for Arsenal.
“He is the goalkeeper Arsenal need to win the title.
“He’s got the experience, he’s got most of the ingredients that a fantastic goalkeeper needs and he is among the best ever goalkeepers.
“It depends on him. I haven’t spoken to him, so I don’t know how he feels physically now, but I think he’s still got some great years to perform at this level. He will give confidence to the whole team, but of course he has to perform.”
We really should not focus too much on one bad game, but there will be those who are wondering how this episode will affect the player mentally. However, those people should remember that Cech has overcome worse things in his career, most notably the skull fracture that nearly cost him his life back in 2006. He did concede two goals on his return the following January but he never shirked a challenge and then did not concede another goal for nine games.
If Cech can get over that, do you really think a couple of mistakes will stop him showing the class that he has shown throughout his career so far? And if Lehmann is so sure that he will shine at Arsenal, who are we to disagree?