‘It's lonely as a keeper but I love the challenge'

Petr Cech is just one clean sheet away from his 200th in the Premier League.

The Czech goalkeeper recorded 162 shutouts during his 11-year spell with Chelsea and has kept 37 in less than three seasons with us, including four in a row back in September.

 

Cech has been made to wait since December to chalk up his 200th, but the 35-year-old is relishing the challenge of reaching his latest milestone. 

 

“I think being a goalkeeper you feel lonely all the time, but it is a special position on the pitch and that is why I love it,” he said. “It is a big challenge and usually you are the one to blame for everything and the one who never takes the credit if someone scores a goal but that is how it goes.

 

“I enjoy the challenge and I love being in that position where you make important saves, regardless of whether people notice or not you know you have made an important save and you give yourself and your team a chance to win and it makes me happy.

 

“I am also proud because when I came to the Premier League in 2004 obviously I was 22 years old and I thought, 'Oh wow, this is everything I dreamt about and I am here’. It was up to me to show I am capable of playing in this league and obviously since I started it all went the direction I wanted and I always wished for.

 

“Obviously there were a few setbacks as you can imagine every time but the most important thing is that I still enjoy the challenge of being a Premier League player and competing against everybody else.

 

“I have to say, sometimes when you look back and you speak about coming to 200 clean sheets in the Premier League, you see how many games everybody else needed to get there. Nobody ever got that far and you think, ‘It is something amazing’. I hope it is going to go way longer than 200.”