Interview

Cech - We want to progress and evolve as a team

Petr Cech kicked off his Emirates FA Cup campaign with a clean sheet in our 3-0 win at Blackpool on Saturday evening - and now he's targeting further success in the competition.

Having won it five times over the course of his career, the cup retains a special place in Petr's heart - but he acknowledges that the Premier League must be our priority this season.

 

"Personally I love the competition," Cech said. "I haven't played it much in my career but most of the time I played at the end and I have five [winners' medals].

 

"I am very proud of them because it is a great competition to win and something to remember and something to look at one day when you retire.

 

"The FA Cup final is a special occasion for any player playing in England.

 

"Our priority is to get into the top four [so we can] be in the Champions League and then you want to progress and evolve as a club, as a team.

 

"We have a new manager and obviously we set our targets so if we can win a trophy together in the first season it would be a good achievement.

 

"You play every game to win and this time we were in the FA Cup, we have the tradition as a club to do well and if we can win it, we'd like to do so.

 

"It is the same with the Europa League – we started really well and are in the last 32.

 

"These are two targets but the Premier League remains a big objective, to get into the top four."

 

Our matchday routine was disrupted by protests by Blackpool's support as we departed our hotel, but Cech felt that our preparation was already complete and the incident was only a minor distraction.

 

"We started with the guy sitting on our bus,” he said. “We had to change the bus. It was one of those things that were aware of and we knew that something might happen.

 

"We tried to concentrate on our game, on our performance and obviously after that you think 'okay, something might happen during the game' but we were ready for it.

 

"We knew that we have to concentrate on our performance. We did it really well."

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