Chelsea could get some joy against Arsenal this weekend, after Gunners manager Unai Emery confirmed he will stick with Petr Cech in goal.
The 36-year-old was very shaky for the north Londoners in their Premier League opener against Manchester City last weekend.
The former Czech Republic international, who earned 124 appearances for his country, looked uncomfortable on the ball under pressure from City’s forwards, and almost scored an embarrassing own goal.
City showed that pressing the veteran could well yield joy, and under Sarri Chelsea will surely be adopting such tactics on Sunday.
Sarri has arrived in England with a big reputation of playing attractive football, but he also ensured his Napoli players were well drilled and good at pressing high up the pitch.
WATCH: Unai Emery has defended Petr Cech and insists the goalkeeper will keep his starting place for Arsenal’s game against Chelsea on Saturday.
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— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) 16 August 2018
Cech will go down as one the greatest ever Premier League goalkeepers without doubt, but the goalkeeping game has changed.
Now there is a growing trend of younger goalkeepers being adept with their feet and playing out from the back.
Cech was coached in a different way to the modern day goakeeper, and unfortunately for him is not as used to playing with the ball under pressure.
Sarri and Chelsea need to exploit this. The Italian ought to instruct his attackers such as Eden Hazard, Alvaro Morata and Willian to press high and try to force the ex-Blue into a mistake – at the moment there’s a feeling one is coming.
It’s a brave show of loyalty from Emery to say he’ll stick with Cech; it’s now down to the Blues to prove the Spaniard wrong – and there’s definitely a good chance of that.