Chelsea keeper Petr Cech: Newcastle stalemate sums up our season

Petr Cech, Chelsea

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Petr Cech has admitted Chelsea‘s frustrating home draw with Newcastle “sums up” a season in which they have fallen short of the club’s recent high standards.

The Blues were held to a 2-2 draw by their visitors on Sunday courtesy of a last-minute Steven Taylor header after an unimpressive performance which lacked any real fluency or inspiration, but the point proved enough to secure a second-placed finish in the Premier League after Arsenal’s home defeat to Aston Villa.

Sunday’s result was the latest in a long line of disappointments this season for Chelsea, and manager Carlo Ancelotti’s future at the club is the subject of intense speculation after a campaign which has ended trophyless despite owner Roman Abramovich bankrolling a £70million January transfer spree which brought Fernando Torres and David Luiz to the club.

Cech believes the poor performance can be partly explained by Manchester United wrapping up the Premier League title away at Blackburn the day before, but concedes the result is depressingly apt considering the club’s season.

“It seemed to me that in each of us there was still disappointment from not winning the title, as on Saturday Manchester United captured it,” the Czech Republic international wrote on his personal website.

“We wanted badly to win the last match of the season at Stamford Bridge and conceding in the last minute is not the best way to reward our fans, who have supported us all year.

“It somehow sums up our season in the way that there was always something missing for us to finish the job.”

Despite the disappointing nature of the result, however, the Chelsea keeper was also keen to take the positives from the match, citing the securing of second place in the Premier League and the performance of 18-year-old Josh McEachran in his first league start as examples.

“Despite the bad result, I found two positives in it,” he added.

“The first one was that Arsenal were beaten by Aston Villa, which means we have definitely secured second place in the league.

“The second positive is the performance of our young midfielder Josh McEachran. He started the game and did really well.

“Josh only recently turned 18 but if he follows the path he has been on, he is surely destined to become a big player at Chelsea. He is enormously talented, so it is up to him.”