100 not out in the Premier League for Petr Cech!

With the 2-0 win over Arsenal at the weekend, Petr Cech kept his 100th clean sheet for Chelsea in 6 seasons since he signed for Chelsea back in July 2004.

Its been a spell in his career that has seen him win all there is to win in England, Suffer heartache in the Champions League on more than one occasion and suffer what could of been a life threatening injury. In his time at the club he has worked under 5 different managers and when fit has been ever present in our quest for more glory..

(data obtained from http://www.en.wikipedia.org/)
Cech came to Chelsea in the summer of 2004 and was signed from Rennes at the time just before Jose Mourinho came to the club. Cech was brought into the club as the number one and took the mantle from fans favourite Carlo Cudicini.

In his first season at Chelsea he created a Premier League record for keeping a clean sheet for 1025 minutes (broken by Van Der Saar since) which helped take Chelsea to League Cup and Premier League glory that season. Cech was given a special award by the Premier League for the record that season and was awarded the Golden Gloves award for keeping 25 clean sheets in the League that season.

The following season Chelsea retained the Premier League. Cech played in all but 2 games and Chelsea only conceded a record 15 goals that season. After the first two seasons Cech was flying and Chelsea had established themselves as the team to beat.

This all changed in the 2006/2007 season as Cech was severley injured in a tackle made by Stephen Hunt early in the game at Reading in the Madejski Stadium. Hunt challenged Cech in the first minute of the game and his knee caught Cech in the head. Cech went off and his injury turned out to be so serious that he had to have major surgery. Cech underwent surgery for a depressed skull fracture in what turned out to be an injury in which doctors later stated could of been life threatening. He was told he would be out of football for a long time.

Cech returned to the team in at the end of January 2007 away to Liverpool in a game we lost 2-0 with his protective head guard in which he still wears to this day. After this game Cech went onto not conceed a goal for another 810 minutes of play and he received the Premier League Player of the Month award for keeping 8 successive clean sheets. He later went onto help Chelsea win the League Cup final and Chelsea beat Man United at Wembley in the FA Cup Final keeping another clean sheet. We won 1-0.

The 2007/2008 season was a nightmare for Cech through injuries. A persistant Ankle injury kept him sidelined for weeks and then a clash with Ben-Haim in training required 50 stitches in his lip and mouth which kept him out of the side even longer. He got back into the side towards the end of the season and featured in the Champions League Final against United.

The 2008/2009 season Cech and Chelsea started like a train. He kept 10 clean sheets in an impressive opening to the season. Chelsea finished the season conceding just 24 goals in the League and once again got so close to the League and Champions League final. He was part of the side that won the FA Cup this time under Guus Hiddink even though he conceded the fastest goal in FA Cup history.

This season Cech has played in nearly every game when available. He was sent off for the first time in a Chelsea shirt away to Wigan. Has taken stick at times from all of us but has seen his performances (despite the odd blip) remain consistant. He made two great saves against the Arsenal to keep us infront on Sunday but thats just Cech all over.

We all have our opinions about him, some people say he isn't as good as he used to be before his injury. Some people think he has lost it, but for me his record at Chelsea speaks for itself. I believe he is nearly back to his best and we need to ensure we get behind him cause as long as we have Petr Cech in goal we will always have a chance.

Congrats Petr Cech!

CAREFREE & KTBFFH EVERYONE!