It is impossible to judge beyond a shadow of a doubt how many extra Premier League points Arsenal have earned with the former Chelsea keeper Petr Cech between the posts but after another stunning performance from the 33-year old stopped Stoke City taking all the points at the Britannia Stadium yesterday it is clear that the Chelsea captain’s prediction that Cech would be worth an extra 12 to 15 points for Arsenal is close to the mark.
So the Daily Mail have looked back at the 22 Premier League games that the Gunners played so far this season in order to put a points number on the Cech effect. The paper’s football experts have had to rely on their own opinion and the report admits that they have decided to disregard things like the calming influence Cech has on his team mates in the Arsenal defence and also games like the heavy wins over Man United and Swansea even though Cech made great saves at key moments that might have influenced the course of the match.
So this is probably a conservative figure that they have reached but they reckon that Cech has already been worth an extra 10 points like so:
Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool – One point.
Arsenal 2-1 Everton – Two points.
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham – One point.
Norwich 1-1 Arsenal – One point.
Arsenal 3-1 Sunderland – Two points.
Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle – Two points.
Stoke 0-0 Arsenal – One point.
Assuming they are about right, without the transfer of Cech in the summer the Gunners would have 34 points and that would put us down in 8th place and facing our usual fight for the top four. Instead we are in top spot and fighting for the title so was this the most important single signing Arsene Wenger ever made for Arsenal?