While the 36-year-old admits an error in his distribution at Cardiff was ‘not a great thing to do’, he remains bullish about his ability to implement Unai Emery’s football philosophy. Petr Cech says criticism of his performances this season have unfairly focused on a couple of hiccups. Ahead of the Gunners trip to Newcastle, a match that Cech is expected to start, the keeper defended his reputation.
“I had 166 passes in the first four games which is a huge amount, and everybody picked up on only two,” he told the Evening Standard.
“It’s obviously not a great thing to do when you pass the ball in a dangerous area, like I did at Cardiff when I gave it to Harry Arter but it’s part of the game that you can always make a mistake.”
Given there’s no suggestion that Emery is about to change his tactics, Cech preached patience, pointing out that those teams with a reputation for building play from the back didn’t become experts in the blink of an eye.
“If you look at the evolution of Barcelona and Man City, it didn’t happen overnight. As they got more familiar with that [style], the results came.
“We’re now in that process of getting to know what advantage it gives us.”
After the Cardiff game, Emery declared his support for Cech stating: “Petr has experience, he is intelligent, he is doing it how we want in building up our work on the pitch.
“It is very important for me to continue doing this and improving. If you play long balls every time, you lose your personality and you lose moments on the pitch.
“We take a little risk. When you break this risk, and break through their pressing, you can find the space for attacking position. “It is clear you can make a mistake, but we need to continue with this personality.”
Most accurate soccer prediction website in the World...