To Guardiola it would be Cech mate
THE fact Petr Cech took to Twitter on Sunday to take the blame for Arsenal’s defeat at Brighton was admirable and it showed the mark of the man.
But I can’t help thinking that Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho would not have given him the opportunity to make those two mistakes in the first place.
They would have been looking at Cech this season and asking, ‘Can he give us the kind of performances we need week in, week out and have we got a No.2 as good as him to challenge for the jersey?’
The answer to both questions would probably be, ‘No’.
I also wonder what kind of malaise there must be in the Gunners’ dressing room if a world-class keeper who has been there and done it all is going into a pressured game like that one and making those sort of ricks.
He is one of the greatest goalkeepers the Premier League has seen and his hackles should have been raised.
But they weren’t and that says so much about what is — or isn’t — going on in training under Arsene Wenger every day.
None of those Arsenal players can be pushing the others if they are getting to a match day and being so off it, and Cech (right) will know that as well as anyone.
BURNLEY have had a tough time of it of late, but Sean Dyche’s men showed character in coming back against Everton to win 2-1.
And what an incredible stat that was, having gone 1-0 down in 53 games, they’d lost 42 of them.
That should give the Clarets confidence for the run-in and, with Arsenal struggling as they are, they should be scenting blood and believing there’s no reason they can’t make the Europa League.