Arsenal: Petr Cech’s short-term brilliance, long-term shortcomings

Petr Cech was brilliant for Arsenal against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon, making a string of excellent saves. But there was also a long-term shortcoming: his distribution.

Arsenal opened the season against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon. It was never going to be an easy affair. And so it turned out to be. City were dominant for large portions of the match, dictating the play in the midfield, winning the battle of possession, as they almost always do, and creating a series of good chances that perhaps should have been converted.

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At the heart of the contest was goalkeeper Petr Cech. He made six saves in total, many of which were difficult ones that a lesser goalkeeper would not have made. He thwarted Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero in one-on-ones, blocked a fizzed Riyad Mahrez freekick before scampering up to deflect Aymeric Laporte’s rebound in a brilliant double-save, and was confident and assured from crosses, with his positioning at the near post almost perfect on each and every occasion.

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After the game, Unai Emery, who was questioned for his selection of Cech over new summer signing Bernd Leno, praised his goalkeeper’s performance:

"“Petr Cech had a very good pre-season. Today I think he played well also and he has this experience to defend our goal.”"

And from a pure shot-stopping perspective, Cech was tremendous. As Emery rightly highlights, the ‘experience to defend our [sic] goal’ was on full show and it rescued Arsenal time and time again, keeping them in the game for far longer than the pattern of the game suggested.

But while his short-term brilliance was nice to see, there was a long-term shortcoming that may be more significant to take note of as the season rumbles on.

Only Matteo Guendouzi had more touches with his feet than Cech. For Arsenal, that is a major issue, especially when you consider Cech’s issues when he does have the ball at his feet — he nearly scored an own-goal for goodness sake when trying to sweep a first-time pass out to Shkodran Mustafi.

This is a problem that I highlighted during the preseason. It is an issue that many fans had when the team sheet was announced prior to kick off. While Leno is somewhat of an unknown commodity in the Premier League, he is far more comfortable in playing out from the back with a much greater passing accuracy and range than his counterpart.

Cech is not necessarily poor with the ball at his feet. There are worse goalkeepers out there. But he is 36 having played in a certain manner throughout his career. It would be naive to think that he can suddenly switch to this way of playing in one preseason. But that is precisely what Emery is asking of him.

It is strange to say that Cech was both brilliant and flawed against City, but that is precisely what he was. And the brilliance of his performance is not what is as significant for the season to come. It’s the shortcomings that were displayed, and that is a little concerning.