Experienced goalkeeper Petr Cech received his 300th appearance in the 4-1 win over Cardiff on saturday. Despite this memorable day for Petr Cech he was unable to keep a clean sheet in this game when Jordon Mutch scored in the 10th minute for Cardiff. Although Cardiff City took the lead with their 10th minute goal that was not enough to beat Chelsea as they went on to score an impressive 4 goals by the final whistle had gone. These goal’s came from Samuel Eto’o scoring his first goal in a Chelsea shirt, Oscar and Eden Hazard scoring 2.
During Petr Cech’s 300 appearances in the Premier League he has got 145 clean sheets to his name. When chelsea brought in the goalkeeper from Rennes in 2004 as a reserve to Carlo Cudicini no one would have thought this 22 year old keeper would reach 300 league appearances or win 3 premier league titles with Chelsea. He achieved 300 appearances and 3 league titles despite having a serious head injury during a match against Reading in 2006 which resulted in him being out for 4 months and having to wear a head guard for the rest of his career. Cech has been at Chelsea for 9 years and has been the main goalkeeper for Chelsea for most of that time and despite competition from Carlo Cudicini & Mark Schwarzer he has kept his place in the squad as number one choice.
Chelsea have a very talented and loyal player in Petr Cech and if he was to pick up an injury then they have the even more experienced australian keeper Mark Schwarzer who they bought on free agent. Chelsea had a slow start to the season but they have picked up things as they are 2nd in the table. Chelsea have a strong goalkeeper selection along with a rather impressive defense and strike however their group of midfielders is top class. There is such fierce competition in the midfield of chelsea that good players are not receiving enough time on pitch such as Juan Mata who was subbed of in saturdays match against Cardiff. Petr Cech is a very good keeper with plenty of experience and will be of great benefit to Chelsea, if he stays fit the club will have a world class keeper in their goal for another 5 year at least.
By Billy Foster
