Interview

Cech - It reminded me of Zidane’s volley

It's arguably our goal of the season so far, and Petr Cech was certainly impressed with Mesut Ozil's match-winner against Newcastle on Saturday. In fact the strike took him all the way back to 2002, and a famous Real Madrid goal from Zinedine Zidane.

“It was a fantastic goal," the goalkeeper said. "It made me think of the Zidane goal in the Champions League final in Glasgow against Leverkusen. The ball went the other way but the technique was a moment of brilliance which literally won the game.

"He had a fantastic game, the whole game, he was actually brilliant."

Cech added that Ozil is now back to his best, and believes he is a lot fresher than earlier in the season.

“I think sometimes people forget that when you play for a top national team then you play every week, play every summer, have a short break and you carry on, carry on, carry on – I think the first few months of the season the fatigue caught up with him. You could see he was as not as sharp as he is now which I think he benefits from."

The goalkeeper is also pleased with his own form this season. He kept his ninth clean sheet of the season on Sunday, to take him to 199 overall in the Premier League. Now he wants to bring up the milestone on Friday night.

“A few weeks ago, I hoped that, with so many games coming up before Christmas, that the Liverpool game would be the one where I could actually get the 200th, so it’s going to plan.

“Hopefully we can get a win and obviously the clean sheet, but the win will be more important."