In football, we often see that the achievements of a defender or a goalkeeper go unnoticed, while, the achievements of an attacking player get discussed widely. The same happened with Petr Cech a few days ago.
Playing for Chelsea against Southampton, the 31 years old Czechoslovakian kept a clean sheet. It was the 208th time that he had done so playing for the Blues and with that, he got levelled with Peter Bonetti who is considered as one of the greatest Chelsea goalies so far.
That was certainly a huge achievement for Cech, but, surprisingly, it didn’t get talked about as much as it should have.
Cech should be given a lot of credit not just because of the fact that he has equalled the record of Bonetti, but, because of the no. of matches that he has taken to do so. He has taken 272 matches lesser and that is something which is admirable.
Cech has been a part of Chelsea since the last 9 years or so and he has made 450 appearances for them so far.
Talking to the reporters yesterday about getting equalized with Bonetti in terms of the no. of clean sheets, Cech said, “Peter is one of the club’s all time greats. So, it’s really a huge thing for me to get levelled with him. I have had the opportunity of meeting him a few times in the past and I must say he is a fantastic human being.”
Meanwhile, Cech might be breaking one more record in a few months’ time i.e. the record of keeping the most no. of clean sheets in the Premier League. Currently, the holder of that magnificent record is David James, but, Cech is not too far away from him.