Petr Cech was in top form again on Sunday, keeping Everton at bay just when the visitors looked likely to claw their way back against our 10 men.
Like everyone at the club he felt dejected after missing out on the Champions League, but optimistic that we can limit our absence to one season.
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“If you have one off year in 20 years, it’s not a problem,” he said.
“I think the club has a strong foundation, strong organisation and everything to be out for one year and come back straight in, like Chelsea did last season. I think it helped them not to be involved [in Europe] this season, because they could keep all their energy for the league.
“I think next season we need to respect every competition, as we’ve always done, carry on the momentum, trying to win as many games and keep the team together. I think that’s the main [thing], you need to keep the team together and try to strengthen it in areas the manager would like to. Then we’ll be ready to go again.
“Obviously February and March was the period where we dropped some points unnecessarily. I think as well in the big games, last season we got the most points from the top six or the top four, and this season we haven’t done so well.
“We had four more points than last year, so we improved in terms of our points total. But the others had a great season and it was not enough to be in the top four.”
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