Petr Cech today set a new Chelsea
goalkeeping record for clean sheets.
With the team not conceding a goal in the
2-0 victory away against Hull City, it was
the 209 th time Cech had played in a
shut-out performance, beating the 208
clean sheets recorded by Peter Bonetti in
his long and distinguished Chelsea career
that spanned 1959 to 1979.
On breaking the record, Cech who joined
Chelsea in 2004 and made his 459 th
appearance today said:
'It is a great personal achievement, a
great milestone but I believe this number
can grow and hopefully it will help us win
another trophy.
'The most important thing today was to
get the three points but I was thinking in
the second half I still have the clean sheet
and in the end we had both the points
and the clean sheet.
'I am still young, I can keep playing and I
hope I will so I can add some more clean
sheets and we will see where the final
number will stop.'
It was also the 31-year-old's 150th clean
sheet in the Premier League measured by
their criteria*. The all-time record in that
competition is 169 by David James and
Jose Mourinho is backing his keeper to
beat that.
'Petr is almost 10 years playing at the top
and there has been clean sheet after
clean sheet,' said the Chelsea manager.
'At this moment he beats the record of Mr
Bonetti but I think probably next year he
will beat the record of the Premier
League.
'He becomes a historic figure in the
Premier League because all his career
has been here since 2004. Also playing
with Chelsea he has a lot of appearances
and the best stage for a goalkeeper I think
is between 30 and 35.'
Bonetti, who also worked as a goalkeeper
coach at Chelsea during the 1980s and
currently is a matchday host in one of the
hospitality areas at Stamford Bridge,
reacted to Cech's achievement with praise
for his successor.
' Petr Cech has been brilliant to do what
he's done, he's one of the best
goalkeepers I've seen. His record speaks
for itself.
'I admire him greatly, he's been
incredible, and still has a long time to go.
He is relatively young and could still go on
to break more and more records.
'Clean sheets were a little more rare back
in my day but that takes nothing away
from him, he's been brilliant. He's a
fantastic person.
When I first met him he
was a real gentleman. I went to wish him
well when he first joined and it was like
we knew each other from years back.
Whenever I see him he is always lovely,
very courteous and always eager to say
hello.
He's a very genuine person.'
Cech recently said he would invite Bonetti
for a drink when the record changed
hands and it is an invitation that will be
accepted.
'I'm looking forward to him buying that
drink when we cross paths, maybe at the
end of the season,' said Bonetti. 'I'm
looking forward to getting that cup of tea
once there's no work to worry about!'
Frank Lampard , who set a new
goalscoring record for Chelsea last
season and has shared so much success
with Cech and played in so many of those
clean-sheet games, joined in the plaudits
for his colleague.
'Pete has been one of the best
goalkeepers for many, many years,' said
the midfielder.
'He's unbelievable, particularly in the year
we won the Champions League, looking
back on the final and the games towards
the final and how much he saved us. I
don't think he got enough recognition for
it on a world scale.
'People talk about other goalies in Spain
and Italy, but nobody was in Pete's class
that year. At Chelsea obviously people
recognise him.
One of the downsides of
being as consistent as him is maybe
people do get used to you being that
good. We're very lucky to have him.'
Everyone at Chelsea Football Club
congratulates Petr on his huge
achievement.
*Chelsea FC awards a clean sheet to the
starting goalkeeper when the team does
not concede in the complete match. In the
event of an outfield player or (since 1992)
a substitute keeper replacing an injured or
sent-off keeper then they share the clean
sheet. Some other organisations' records
require the keeper to complete the match
before he is given a clean sheet.
No comments:
Post a Comment