COMMENT
By Rob Stewart at the DW Stadium
Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas went out of his way not to point the finger of blame at Petr Cech after his costly clanger against Wigan Athletic, but there can be no disguising the fact he is not a patch on the goalkeeper former Blues boss Jose Mourinho once hailed as the “best in the world”.
Shortly after Cech cost Chelsea’s title bid crucial two points by fumbling a weak shot from Hugo Rodallega to gift Wigan a late equaliser through Jordi Gomez, Villas-Boas lamented collective failings and his side’s loss of concentration – he called it “disconcentration” for the record – rather than an individual mistake from the Czech Republic international.
However, despite the Portuguese coach’s efforts to divert attention away from Cech’s gaffe, his latest slip-up showed that the 29-year-old is becoming increasingly fallible, a shadow of the player who was so pivotal in Chelsea’s back-to-back Premier League title wins under Mourinho.
They say that goalkeepers are supposed to get better with age but his downturn in fortune since he was lucky to escape with his life following the terrible head injury he suffered at Reading five years ago suggests that he may be an exception to the rule.
Cech headed to Chelsea in 2004 after being voted the top goalkeeper at Euro 2004 when a £7 million deal with French club Rennes was struck and he quickly gained an aura of invincibility, starting with a 1-0 win over Manchester United on his debut that is a far cry with his current shakiness.
It was in his first season at Stamford Bridge that Cech established a Premier League clean sheet record – since beaten by Edwin van der Sar at Manchester United – by going 1,025 minutes without having to pick the ball out of his net as Chelsea reached the summit of English football for the first time in 50 years.
The following season Cech conceded just 22 goals in the Premier League as Chelsea defended their domestic crown and he looked well set to help his club dominate English football for a prolonged period.
In decline l Chelsea goalkeeper Cech is no longer an imposing last line of defence
The future looked bright for Cech and his club until he suffered a fractured skull in a collision with Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt in October 2006 at the Madejski Stadium, an incident that doctors insisted nearly cost the goalkeeper his life.
Bearing in mind the severity of the injury it is to his immense credit that Cech managed to return to frontline duties within three months with what has become his trademark scrum cap to protect his head but few would doubt he has never seemed the same since tragedy almost struck and his career was thrown into jeopardy.
| CECH’S OTHER RECENT BLUNDERS |
Turkey at Euro 2008: Dropped a cross at the feet of Nihat as the Czechs collapsed to miss out on a quarter-final spot. Man City in 2009: Failed to deal with a Tevez defeat as the then league tables went down to a 2-1 defeat at Eastlands. Liverpool last season: Blunder allowed current team-mate Raul Meireles to score & hand the Blues a costly home defeat. Arsenal: Individually at fault for three of five goals conceded in an humiliating 5-3 home defeat to their local rivals. Bayer Leverkusen: Effectively waved Friedrich’s late stoppage-time header into the net as AVB’s men lost in Germany. |
Cech – who would also need 50 stitches in a facial injury following a training-ground collision with Tal Ben Haim – has insisted that he will always be prepared to put his head where it hurts despite his horrific injuries. Quite understandably, though, he has started to look timid when he is in the thick of it and vulnerable when bodies and boots are flying around.
His shortcomings at the DW Stadium mean that this season Cech has managed to record just four clean sheets in 14 Premier League appearances, but there have been several high-profile mistakes and moments of hesitancy since that day in Reading to show he has gone downhill since being lauded by Mourinho as “more than special.”
Opponents would be forgiven for exploiting his unease in busy penalty areas by ‘roughing him up’ at set-pieces, where he looks anything but the commanding presence he was under Mourinho.
Cech was so formidable it seemed as though he could remain Chelsea’s No.1 for many years to come but nowadays he looks more beatable than ever – as shown in Wigan – and no longer looks irreplaceable.
He set incredibly high standards but as Villas-Boas attempts to map out a route to glory in the Champions League and Premier League, Cech’s position is bound to come under scrutiny in a changing of the guard.
Cech is not alone in looking insecure because the likes of Jose Bosingwa also looked out of his depth against Wigan’s Victor Moses and is starting to become a liability for Chelsea, while Daniel Sturridge continues to make up for senior colleagues’ failings by excelling.
Villas-Boas has already ushered Nicolas Anelka towards the Stamford Bridge exit along with centre-half Alex and Cech will have to prove himself all over again to quell the doubts about his own long-term future.