Petr Cech will have 'fantastic' season at Arsenal, says Gunners legend Jens Lehmann

Winner: Jens Lehmann believes Petr Cech will help Arsenal win silverware this season
Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Vaishali Bhardwaj13 August 2015

Petr Cech will recover from his two errors in Arsenal's home defeat to West Ham at the weekend and have a "fantastic" season although he will need time to settle in, Gunners legend Jens Lehmann has said.

Cech enjoyed a successful pre-season with Arsenal after making the move from London rivals Chelsea earlier this summer, but opened up the new Premier League campaign with a error-strewn performance against the Hammers on Sunday.

The experienced goalkeeper rushed off his line to try and punch clear Dimitri Payet's free-kick minutes before the break, but failed to reach the ball ahead of Cheikhou Kouyate who subsequently headed in the opener.

West Ham then went on to seal a memorable 2-0 victory over Arsene Wenger's side when Cech was beaten at his near post by Mauro Zarate's low shot in the 57th minute.

But despite enduring a difficult time against Slaven Bilic's side, Lehmann believes Cech will adapt to his new surroundings quickly and enjoy a successful season with his new team.

"It surprised me because I expected him to be really good from the beginning," Lehmann told Goal.

"But sometimes it takes a while to adapt to a new club, particularly when you are coming from a major enemy like Chelsea. It takes time, if he can forget about it at all.

"On the other hand, Chelsea disappointed him because he couldn’t play there last season. He has seen the cruelty in football - you are a hero one year and the next year you are not even playing any more.

"That could spur him on to play a fantastic season for Arsenal."

Cech decided to leave Chelsea for the Gunners this summer after losing his starting spot to Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois last season.

The 33-year-old won 13 major trophies - including the Premier League title and the Capital One Cup last season - during his time at Stamford Bridge, and Lehmann is confident Cech is the goalkeeper to inspire Arsenal to success in the top-flight this term.

"He is the goalkeeper Arsenal need to win the title," Lehmann said.

Read More

"He’s got the experience, he’s got most of the ingredients that a fantastic goalkeeper needs and he is among the best ever goalkeepers.

"It depends on him. I haven’t spoken to him, so I don’t know how he feels physically now, but I think he’s still got some great years to perform at this level. He will give confidence to the whole team, but of course he has to perform."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in