Petr Cech is impressed by Arsenal’s solidity, but thinks the Gunners will still fall short of breaking Chelsea’s long-standing record for the fewest goals conceded in a Premier League season.
Arsenal have made an almost imperious start to the league campaign, currently sitting four points clear at the top of the table and six points ahead of defending champions Liverpool.
At the heart of their impressive form has been the Gunners’ superb defensive record, with Mikel Arteta’s side conceding just three goals in their first nine league games.
The north London side already had the best defence in the league over the past few seasons, but have gone up another level this campaign, in part due to the summer signings of Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera.
Should they continue at their current rate, Arsenal would only concede around 13 goals throughout the entire season, a tally which would see them break the previous record set by Chelsea in the 2003/04 season.
In that campaign, the Blues conceded just 15 goals, as a defence marshalled by the likes of John Terry and Cech helped Jose Mourinho’s side canter to the league title.
But the Czechia goalkeeper, who also played for Arsenal later in his career, believes that the Gunners will find it hard to maintain the current level of defensive excellence required to break Chelsea’s long-standing record.
‘Well, you know, they are doing really well, I have to say. It’s early in the season, but you have to start somewhere,’ Cech said in a TikTok video when asked by former teammate Terry if Arsenal could break Chelsea’s record.
‘If they carry on like that, then they have a chance, but at the same time, it’s a hard job. 38 games, you need to have a little bit of luck sometimes.
‘I think it will be hard for them to break our record, but I will be following because they started well.’
Reflecting on his side’s achievement 20 years ago, Cech added: ‘I have to say I’m proud of it because you have to be consistent and you have to have a whole team chipping in and, actually, only 15 goals in one entire season in the Premier League is quite insane.
‘You need everyone and, of course, if you have someone who can actually be in a space between the attacking phase and defending phase and gel things together, then I believe that is very important.
‘We had Makele there and everybody looked and thought ‘this guy is there everytime you need him’. That is important and, of course, nowadays you want creative players as well to score some more goals, but if you have a solid structure and people really chipping in and defending well, then it wins you games in the end.’
Arteta’s style of play with his Arsenal side has come in for criticism in some quarters, but Cech said it is a breath of fresh air to see a side put so much focus on their defensive record.
‘And it’s nice to see, on the other hand, that you have a team that is actually proud of having a defensive record as well, because everybody is now about playing out from the back and creating chances and scoring goals,’ he added.
‘But at the end of the day if you don’t concede you only need one goal to win games, and this is what Arsenal has been doing so far, so let’s see how they keep going.’