Time for Chelsea to cash their Cech?

 

Once the cornerstone of the meanest defence in the Premier League, Petr Cech now seems to be a mere shadow of a once great goalkeeper.

Chelsea lost five goals at home to London rivals Arsenal, the first time they'd conceded five at home in the league in over twenty years, and Cech looked less than secure. Beaten at his near post on three occasions, the Czech international stopper had only seven shots on target to deal with, and conceded five of them. His shots to save ratio in the Premier League this season is currently 46%, the lowest of any keeper in the division.

In Jose Mourinho's first season as Chelsea manager they conceded a record low of fifteen goals in the entire campaign, a figure that the current Chelsea side have already reached – after just ten matches! In that particular Mourinho year, 2004/05, Cech also set a record of 1,025 minutes without letting in a goal – although this has since been beaten by Edwin van der Sar.

At 29 Cech is relatively young for a goalkeeper, with a potential decade still remaining in his career. He did suffer a horrific head injury in 2006 following a clash with Reading's Stephen Hunt, leaving him with a fractured skull – hence the headgear that the keeper still wears.

But he appeared to make a full recovery from the injury, and although Chelsea lost his return game 2-0 to Liverpool, he then went on another fantastic clean sheet run of 810 minutes in the Premier League. However, the last two seasons have seen Chelsea concede more than 30 goals in league campaigns, something that hadn't happened for five consecutive years prior to that.

There are of course defensive issues at Stamford Bridge other than Cech, as John Terry gets older his lack of a solid defensive partner becomes more and more evident. Ricardo Carvalho provided such a partner during the height of Mourinho's Chelsea success, but at the moment question marks are still being raised over David Luiz or Branislav Ivanović's central defensive qualities. Right back is another position that no longer has a consistent performer.

But Cech certainly appears to be a far less confident and assured goalkeeper than he once did, and in recent seasons has looked suspect at cross balls as well as letting through far too many soft goals. However, he is not yet 30 and has a lot of time to recapture his once superb form. The question is, will he do so, or do Chelsea need to cash in on Cech whilst he still holds some value, and start looking for a new number one?

By Laurie Dunsire