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Can Petr Cech be the difference maker at Arsenal?

By on July 9, 2015

So much has been made of Arsenal’s shortcomings. Perhaps because the dominance of the Invincibles is juxtaposed against their subsequent run of trophyless futility. Eleven trophies in the nine years between 1996 and 2005, then none in the next nine. Or the fact that they dominated as the internet exploded, becoming the most popular club on Twitter in the United States, Japan, France, and Germany, as well as the second most popular in countless others, including Russia, China, Australia, India, Spain, England, and Brazil.  
For nine long years, each passing trophy-less month was logged. Asking what happened between the 2006 Champions League final defeat to Barcelona and the next few seasons is to invite a conspiracy theorist debate into your living room. Did Arsenal become too predictable? Were they too soft after their Invincibles generation moved on? Did Arsene Wenger lose his touch? Were they never really good anyway?

One thing did certainly happen, however. Jens Lehmann peaked around 2005 and notably declined. By 2008, the legendary Germany goalkeeper was loaned out to VfB Stuttgart. During the 2004 Invincibles season, Lehmann commanded Arsenal’s back-line and started in all of The Gunners’ thirty-eight Premier League games. It is testament enough to Lehmann’s goalkeeper prowess that he made sixty-one appearances for Germany whilst competing directly with the all-time great Oliver Kahn.
The new fad in football are top goalkeepers, and as Jonathan Wilson put it on The Guardian, “a save can be worth as much as a goal.” If so, then Lehmann was one of Arsenal’s MVPs of 2004, even behind a watertight back-line. So could the absence of a great goalkeeper explain Arsenal’s plight and this could Cech help restore glory?
Lehmann himself replaced David Seaman at the Emirates (or back then, Highbury). A mighty task it was. Seaman had spent fourteen years as a pivotal part of Arsenal’s starting lineup, winning the double in his second first year at the club. The English international amassed nearly six-hundred Arsenal appearances, sixth on the all time list. Then Arsene Wenger joined in late 1996 and Arsenal’s dominance snowballed into two Premier League and FA Cup trophies by the time Seaman left in 2003.
Seaman and Lehmann are certainly not the only factors, but each at the very least player a major part in Arsenal’s dominance.

Just as their absence has played into Arsenal’s shortcomings. Lukasz Fabianski and Wojciech Szczesny were both in and out of the starting lineup for years, but neither fit the shoes of their predecessor. David Ospina joining last summer was an upgrade but still shared time with Szczesny. Nonetheless, Szczesny’s form and Ospina’s arrival have both played roles in Arsenal’s two consecutive FA Cup trophies.
Now, all that’s left on the list is a Premier League trophy. With Petr Cech joining from Chelsea, Arsenal’s goal will be in the safe, trophy-winning hands of Cech. The Czech Republic goalkeeper was behind Chelsea’s glory days of Jose Mourinho’s first tenure and already, rumors of a potential Ospina exit are surfacing. The experience Cech provides may just be enough to give Arsenal that extra-push, or at least energy to make it. And despite his success he’s still only thirty-three. Arsenal’s new great goalkeeper has the potential to take the club back to the heights.
Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.