Should Petr Cech have been Arsenal’s Man-Of-The-Match?

Last night’s win over Red Star Belgrade guaranteed Arsenal’s progression to the next stage of the Europa League, but it was far from a walkover with the Serbians giving as good as they got and had the same amount of attempts on goal as we did. Other than Wilshere’s good performance we were also treated to another spectacular goal from Olivier Giroud, and for a change he didn’t come of the bench to get it!

The Frenchman admitted that he only went for it because he couldn’t see any other options. “In that position I can control the ball and try to play with another teammate, but I didn’t see anyone and I tried to take it as I can,” he said. “It was a little bit like Palace, and I’ve been a bit lucky because it’s top corner, but it’s back of the net..

“I’m happy for the team, because we’ve been resilient until the end. We keep believing in our game and we knew it would be a tough game, but we needed to be patient and played our game with our qualities.”

“We obviously want to win every single game, and we’ve played two away games, and this is very nice for the future,” Giroud continued. “We can play with certainty and try to win every game in this group.”

Normally a goal like that would have guaranteed Giroud the Man Of The Match, but the striker himself believes that the only reason we won the game was because of the feats of our Number One Petr Cech, who was only playing because of an injury to David Ospina. “We owe him maybe the win today because he has been amazing two or three times,” Giroud said. “We know he has this quality and he was a great goalkeeper tonight.”

Arsene Wenger also agreed that Cech was the difference between the sides. “Of course its important to have a good goalkeeper in these kinds of games,” the manager said. “He came out very quickly on counter-attacks and sometimes when we lost the ball in unexpected ways it was dangerous, and Petr Cech kept us in the game.”

So, looking at it in hindsight, should Petr have got the Man Of The Match award?

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11 Comments

    1. Just good to see Cech playing that game… we dont need two 1st team goalkeepers. Cech should play the big matches (PL and Europa) Ospian can play the Carabao…
      Also get Lacazette playing sub for Carabao or Europa for last 10 -15 minutes to get some goals and confidence for PL – his speed at end of games plus finishing ability will be better than Walcott or Giroud against a tired defence…

  1. Cech did a good job, but he would not be able to do it in the next game, if the other players do not work well as a team. Red Star do not have a quick player like Richarlison, but Everton have fast players like Calvert-Lewin, Sandro, Niasse, Bolasie, etc.

    If Arsenal could make their passes more creative and more accurate, they do not have to worry too much of Everton’s counterattacks. They have to build the attack from Cech and the defenders, and be braver in approaching the opponent’s penalty box.

  2. I liked Cech, Nelson, Wilshere
    I wasn’t crazy about Giroud’so performance in general BUT I would make him a candidate for MOTM simply for his late goal. At the end of the day his goal which was an awesome looking goal btw, gave us the win. Also Wilshere’s dribbling and passing

    I want Wilshere to start over Ozil. He is a harder worker and Ozil will be going to United in the summer. Almost 100% I think. Unless Wenger gives him an outrageous increase like £300,000 or more per week

    It’s a good move by Maureen because Ozil is free. There is no way he would pay big money for him. Also Ozil will perform better having Pogba and Matic behind him rather than Xhaka and Eleny lol (that’s more of a dig against Wenger than the players. Wenger has given us a weaker central midfield than the other top 5 teams)

    1. Best ozil move on. Not worth that salary, total luxury player. I’d be way less upset about losing Alexis and Ozil if Wenger were leaving too. At least the club could say they are starting fresh. But next year will just be more if this rotting.

  3. Yes, but Wilshere does anything and Arsenal fans revert back to treating him like some god. First half was not good for us, Belgrade created all the chances and Cech kept it 0-0. Wilshere was fine, but not MOTM worthy.

    1. Not only that, but also the moment we start to rely on Wilshire coming good again, he’ll just get hurt. Same could be said for Theo….Ramsey….The Ox….Welbeck
      One of the main reasons Arsenal are the way the are. Waiting on average players that have spurts but never come good.

  4. Should have sold ozil and Sanchez, replace them adequately and moved on, now we have two unsettled players, hearing that ozil wants to join manure for FREE, I don’t understand why everything is always complicated with arsenal..

  5. I should be man of the match for having good to watch 90 mins + of that garbage

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