Chelsea legend Petr Cech reaches 200th Premier League clean sheet

From June 2004 to 2014, there was one man who reigned supreme under Chelsea’s goalposts in Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech. Over his years of service for the Blues, Cech collected several records in quick fashion before passing the torch to young keeper Thibaut Courtois in his last season at Stamford Bridge, leaving SW6 as a Premier League and League Cup winner to then join Arsenal in the summer of 2015.

Although now playing for a direct rival, Cech’s class act on and off the pitch has kept him as one of the most enjoyable figures in Chelsea’s recent history. Thus, worry not! As there are no issues with celebrating Petr Cech’s latest record-breaking achievement: picking up his 200th clean sheet in the Premier League!

And to avoid any claims that he had it easy in reaching these plateaus, Cech had plenty of work to collect his latest clean sheet defending not only several shots at his goal, but also a penalty in Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Watford at the Emirates today — his first in the PL since 2011!

Even if Cech is one of those rare star figures in football that put collective glory ahead of personal achievements, he admitted after the game that he was frustrated with a 11-match wait to reach the mark (and who wouldn’t be?).

“It’s an unbelievable personal milestone, obviously. We took only 18 games to get nine clean sheets at the start of the season to reach the 199 and we had to wait 11 games [to get to 200], which is sometimes frustrating.”

”But the most important thing is when the team wins.”

-Petr Cech; Source: Sky Sports

But to get to these heights, most of Cech’s work was done in his years at Chelsea. He left the club with 165 clean sheets in the Premier League, being only 4 away of the previous record established by David James over 18 seasons and 572 games in the Premier League. In comparison, Cech reached his mark with the Blues in only 11 years — including the three-month period in which he was out of contention to a head injury — and 332 matches.

Other individual records held by Cech include:

• Chelsea’s club record for clean sheets across all competitions: 227 (+1 earned as a substitute)
• Fastest player to reach 100 clean sheets in the Premier League: 180 games
• Second-most minutes without suffering a goal in the Premier League: 1,025 (beaten by Edwin Van der Sar with 1,311 minutes in 2009)
• Most Premier League Golden Glove awards: 4 (2004-05, 2009-10, 2013-14, 2015-16; joint record with Joe Hart)
• Most number of clean sheets in a Premier League season: 24 (2004-05)

Always a legend!