Why Unai Emery should avoid starting with Petr Cech at Arsenal
After consecutive losses to Manchester City and Chelsea early in the season, Arsenal have hit the ground running under new manager Unai Emery. A 3-1 win against West Ham United was followed by a 3-2 triumph against Cardiff City on Sunday. While the Gunners are yet to hit top gear this season, the team and the manager should be pleased to get back to winning ways.
Unai Emery has brought about a new style of play at the Emirates. While Arsene Wenger’s style of play was more free-flowing and elegant, Emery relies on possession and pressing to break the opposition down.
The Spaniard’s philosophy also involves ‘playing from the back’ which demands the goalkeeper to use his feet and pass the ball to his defenders rather than getting the ball away with long kicks. Wenger defined an era and now that he has departed, it will take some time for the club to move out of his shadow. The players will need more game time to get acclimatized to the new manager’s tactics.
Petr Cech has found it quite difficult to adjust and so have the likes of Granit Xhaka, Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi. While Xhaka’s lacklustre performances could be chalked down to his inability to play deep in the midfield and retain possession, Ozil has been on the receiving end of Emery’s pressing tactics because of his low work rate.
And Petr Cech, who currently earns wages in the region of £100,000-a-week, has probably not looked so confused in his entire career. In the first game against Manchester City, Cech almost gave away possession near the penalty area and was timid with his passing. Not denying the fact that he is still one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, Cech has never been good at playing with his feet.
The 36-year-old not just lacks a good range of passing but he also looks uncomfortable with the ball at his feet. In his Chelsea years and during Wenger’s era, Cech often picked the ball up with his hands and threw it to good effect. In other situations, he would just clear the ball out of the penalty box with long kicks.
The veteran still has excellent positional sense and is renowned for his shot-stopping abilities. Even with his massive frame, he can get down ever so quickly to keep out low powerful drives. However, as good a shot-stopper as he is, it is not uncommon to see the ball go between Cech’s legs and hit the back of the net.
The first game against Manchester City raised questions over Cech’s ability to play from the back. He wasn’t too exposed in the games against Chelsea and West Ham but it was a pity to see him play with his feet against Cardiff City. When the defenders played the ball back to him, he looked no better than a schoolboy who has suddenly been forced into a Premier League game.
To make matters worse, he almost gifted possession to the attackers near his penalty area when he attempted to pass the ball. Arsenal should consider themselves really lucky to have gotten away with those nervy moments.
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Cech’s struggles, fortunately, did not prove to be disastrous for Arsenal and Emery should call upon Bernd Leno to take up the No.1 spot. The German goalkeeper was signed by Arsenal from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer and he has a lot of quality and experience, having played at the highest level. Also, the fact that he is just 26, should make it easier for him to adapt to Emery’s style of play.
