Petr Cech has revealed that he and his father maintain a chronicle of all his clean sheets.
The Czech Republic goalkeeper broke David James' Premier League record with his 170th shut-out in Arsenal's 2-0 win against Bournemouth.
The result saw the Gunners top the table on Monday, and Cech is pleased with how his first season in north London is going.
“I feel really proud because this is the best league in the world, and one of the most difficult to play in as a goalkeeper,” he said. “To have achieved such a record is a great personal achievement and I’m really proud of that.
“It’s great when somebody gives you the record but I want to have the record when I know have done it in the right way. I always like to do things the right way. As I was approaching the number of David James, people kept reminding me, so I didn’t have to look. I had a look anyway because I wanted to make sure that I knew when it could happen.
“I have a chronicle of every clean sheet. My father also has a book and he writes down the games I have played in, and he has done that ever since I started playing. For my website, we thought it would be a really good idea for people to keep track of my games.
“What makes me happiest, though, is that these clean sheets have brought four Premier League trophies so far, so hopefully we will have more clean sheets this season and celebrate at the end of the season. That’s much more important.
“The great thing is that we go game by game. We don¹t feel overwhelmed. Obviously you are disappointed when you lose games, like against Southampton, but the reaction and the consistency of the work is very important and so far we have been doing that.
“We’ve been preparing for every game as much as possible and we are in a very good position, so hopefully we can carry on.”
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.