Arsenal: I don’t care that Petr Cech can’t save penalties

Petr Cech has failed to save 15 of the 15 penalties that he has faced while at Arsenal. And do you know what? I couldn’t care less.

Arsenal, for many, many years, have suffered through a goalkeeping crisis. Even the unquestioned ability of Wojciech Szczesny was littered with moments of utter madness. You might have to go all the way back to David Seaman to find a reliable man between the sticks for the Gunners. Seaman, for reference, left in 2003, retiring shortly after.

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So when Arsene Wenger decided to address the position in the summer of 2015, signing the experienced, established and proven Petr Cech from Chelsea, who had only lost his starting gig because the younger Thibault Courtois had marginally edged him in the competition to play, there was a sense of relief, more than anything, that the key shortcoming of this team had finally been realised and, hopefully, solved.

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And since that time, although his level of performance has not quite been what it was at Chelsea, Cech has still proven himself an extremely reliable goalkeeper. His communication is clear, his experience is invaluable, and his influence undeniable on an often vulnerable and naive defence. But there has been one prevalent issue that fans have been quick to highlight throughout his time, an issue that is perhaps indicative of the lack of focus that the club has shown to the position on the whole: penalties.

In the two-and-a-half years that Cech has been at Arsenal, he has faced 15 penalties. All 15, astonishingly, have been scored. To add to that fact, he has dived the wrong way on 12 of them, and got any sort of contact to none of them. That is far from a prosperous record. Just in the last week, his issues against the spot-kick were exposed, conceding late penalties against West Bromwich Albion and Chelsea. It has led to some fans questioning whether he should be the short or long-term goalkeeper of this team, with many asking for him to be dropped immediately.

That, to me, seems like an absurd suggestion. Now, I understand that shot-stopping is an ability that factors into a penalty kick and that that is a skill that most goalkeepers should excel at, seeing as it is the primary purpose of their job, but Arsenal have been down the road of the extravagant, enthused, cat-like goal-denyer. It didn’t work. Manuel Almunia. Lukasz Fabianski. Szczesny. David Ospina. They were all excellent shot-stoppers. But that did not make them good goalkeepers.

And this is the element that Arsenal have repeatedly overlooked when it comes to the goalkeeping position: the relationship with the defence. Even now, Wenger continually rotates between Cech and Ospina from the league games to the cup games. I understand that he wants to give game time to a keeper who is deserving of it and would leave without it. But surely it is in the team’s best interests to fully develop the relationship between the number one keeper and the defence?

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Arsenal have mismanaged the goalkeeping position for many years. Even in signing Cech, they have not solved the shortcomings of their decision-making. And the concerns regarding his penalty record are proof of that. Yes, I would like Cech to be good at saving penalties. But first, I would like him to be a good goalkeeper, and Cech is still very much that.