Interview

‘At 2-1 I thought we were going to get something’

Petr Cech caught the eye with a two standout saves against Manchester City, denying Kevin De Bruyne in the first half and Gabriel Jesus after the break.

Both men eventually got the better of Petr, but Jesus’ effort should have been ruled out for offside against David Silva.

Here’s how Petr saw the big moments on Sunday:

on his view of the game…

I thought that at 2-1, when we just got back into the game, that we were in it. We had time to search for the equaliser but the third goal obviously made a huge difference. At 2-1 the game was going on and we had some good passages of play where we could have put them more under pressure and searched for the equaliser. At 3-1, it gave the advantage back to them. They are an experienced team with a lot of quality and they took advantage of that.

on City’s second and third goals…

I can’t really comment on the penalty incident because I had the players running from a completely different angle to the referee. Suddenly I saw Sterling falling and the referee’s decision. At the moment, without seeing anything on the TV, I can’t really comment on that. The third goal, I was surprised when it went in because I thought Silva was far [in front] of everybody. But again, the referee has a better view than I did and you have to accept the decision. I think the referees have a difficult enough job. They need to make their decisions. If he got it right or wrong, I don’t know, but  obviously the third goal made a difference because it took away the opportunity for us to find the equaliser.

on the gap between City and Arsenal…

We had passages of play where we matched them, controlled the ball and looked dangerous. But inevitably they have a huge quality up front and when they managed to find the right passes and the right movement, they created some opportunities. At 2-1, I thought that we were going to get something out of it.