Chapter Ninety-Four: Cech
One of the top 10 goalkeepers of the 21st century, Petr Cech joined Chelsea in the summer of 2004 for £7 million, setting a record for the most value of a goalkeeper in the club's history.
The 2004/05 season was Petr Cech's first season at Stamford Bridge, and Cech delivered an astonishing record of results when he arrived at the Bridge, making 35 league appearances, keeping 24 clean sheets and conceding just 13 goals as the Blues won the top flight title for the first time in 50 years. 1
Between February and March, he kept 1,024 minutes in goal, Cech won the inaugural Premier League Golden Glove Award for his performances, and between December 2004 and March 2005, Cech set a record for 1,024 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal in the English top flight, and at the end of the season, he also won his first winner's medal and the record for the fewest goals conceded and the most clean sheets in the English top flight.
In 2005/06, Chelsea's defence was not as watertight as it was in 2004/05, but Cech continued to perform well and was a major reason for the team's title defence, which helped the Blues defend their Premier League title in 2006/07.
However, in October 2006, Cech suffered a fractured skull and underwent emergency surgery at Reading, which led to a major crisis in his career, and unexpectedly just three months later, Cech returned to the pitch with his helmet on, and was named Premier League Player of the Month for March with four clean sheets, and Cech also started the League Cup and FA Cup finals, helping Chelsea win both major cup competitions.
In 2009/10, Cech cemented his reputation with another consistent season and helped the team win both the league and FA Cup for the first time, winning the Golden Glove again, keeping a clean sheet in 17 of his 34 league games that season.
In 2010/11, Cech played more games than ever before, surpassing Gianfranco Zola's record of 312 to become the most foreign player in Chelsea history, and was named Chelsea Player of the Year.
In 2011/12, Cech missed two games with a sprained knee but soon returned to the pitch and has been playing more in league and cup competitions since then, with Petr Cech showing more consistency following the departure of Villas Boas, often making world-class saves at crucial moments.
Petr Cech made a number of crucial saves in two major finals to make a name for himself at the Bridge. Andy Carroll's header against Liverpool in the FA Cup final was one of the best saves of his career to secure a 2-1 victory for the Blues and their seventh FA Cup title.
Most memorable was the Champions League final against Bayern Munich, where he saved Alger Robben's penalty in extra-time and denied Ivika Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger to give Didier Drogba the chance to score the decisive penalty.
In the 2012-13 season, due to the frequent changes of Chelsea managers, Chelsea almost lost the four major this season, the Champions League, the league defeat, only the Europa League trophy can be contested, Cech and Chelsea seized the opportunity, 2-1 victory over Benfica in the final to win the title.
The 2013/14 season was Petr's tenth season at Chelsea as the first-choice goalkeeper, and in January 2014, the Blues beat Hull City 2-0 away, marking Bonetti's record for the most clean sheets in club history set by Bonetti for many years.
Cech missed out on the final three games with a dislocated shoulder, but he still dominated the league with 16 clean sheets and became the first goalkeeper to win the Premier League Golden Glove award three times.
In 2014-15, Cech became a substitute for Thibaut Courtois, and throughout 2014-15, as Courtois's substitute, Cech made just seven appearances in the Premier League, but his stats were not at all behind, with a save success rate of 88.9%, which was higher than Arsenal's two goalkeepers, David Ospina, and Wojciech Szczesny's 67.2%.
With four clean sheets in seven appearances, Petr Cech's superior aerial dominance is still impressive, and there are no mistakes to concede at all, statistics show that in the past three seasons, Cech has a save success rate of 78%, the best goalkeeper in the Premier League, and finally on June 29, 2015, Cech moved to Arsenal.
The former goalkeeper of Chelsea is now saving Chelsea's attacking balls.
Chelsea's attack was put to an end but no one thought there was anything wrong with Cech doing everything, as football is all about, with a couple of players staying in one team until they retire.
Even Segura was just annoyed, he felt that his shot just now was too positive, but Segura's shot was not the kind of particularly tricky striker, and it was normal to be saved by Cech, Wenger naturally studied Chelsea's tactics and players this season, and now the striker is more threatening than Costa and Jones, and nothing else is a big threat to Chel.
Chelsea's attack was fruitless this time around, and it was Arsenal's turn to counter-attack.
In the first few minutes, the scramblers also launched some attacks, but most of them were defused by Chelsea before they could reach the first 30 yards of goal, and this counterattack finally broke through to the goal with most of Chelsea's players still in front of their own half.
Sanchez made a one-two with Ramsey before slotting the ball to Welbeck's feet.
Welbeck shook defender Cesar Azpilicueta with the ball and lifted his foot to shoot towards goal, but the ball was held firmly in the arms of Courtois, and Welbeck was not surprised by the result.
Because of Chelsea's goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, but let Petr Cech play as a substitute goalkeeper, on May 11, 2017, in Chelsea's 3-0 win over Middlesbrough, Courtois completed his 150th career clean sheet opponents, in the 2016-17 Premier League season completed all games, Courtois made 36 league appearances for Chelsea in the 2016-17 season, and kept a clean sheet in 16 of those games, all of which Chelsea won in all 16 games. In other words, Courtois contributed at least 48 points for Chelsea, and the statistic of 16 clean sheets against opponents finally earned Courtois the Golden Glove of the Premier League in 2016/17.
Courtois made his debut in Belgium's friendly match against France in 2011, becoming the youngest goalkeeper in Belgian history, and then Thibaut Courtois became the first choice goalkeeper for the Belgian national team and helped Belgium reach the finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which was Belgium's first World Cup finals since 2002.
Courtois played fully at the World Cup in Brazil, helping Belgium win all three of their group games, beating the United States in extra time in the round of 16 knockout rounds, helping Belgium reach the quarter-finals, and finally losing 0-1 to Argentina in the quarter-finals.
Courtois held the ball and Chelsea began to attack.
Although Cech is 35 years old this year, he is long past the prime of his career, but the goal he guards can still be a nightmare for strikers, provided that he is in good form and performs properly.
And today's game, Cech himself felt like he was back at his peak.