BOTH Arsenal stars’ anniversaries bad news for Chelsea

You have probably seen a lot of Arsenal related articles today about the fact that it is 10 years today since Theo Walcott signed for the club from his boyhood club Southampton, but there is another Arsenal star who had a major event in his football career 10 years ago, although not to the day.

It was in October of 2006 that our keeper Petr Cech suffered that horrible head injury while playing in the Premier League for Chelsea and the 33-year old has been talking about it to Arsenal Player this week. The Gunners number one admits that it was a tough time for him, even though he felt sure that he would play again despite many other people’s dire predictions.

Cech said, “There were a lot of people saying it was probably the end and that I would not play again. You get so many people telling you that you should take time, you should take the whole year off and build up slowly to get back.

“I wanted to get back playing as this is what I enjoy the most and it was a challenge to prove to everyone that I don’t need a whole year. It was a massive challenge for me because there were days when you just feel like it will never happen, it’s not going well, you don’t feel well and you think, ‘Ok what am I going to do.’

“But then you had days where all the positive things came back and I was really happy with the way I did it. I enjoyed the rest of the season when I came back because it was kind of a bonus. Nobody expected me to play so I really enjoyed that because I played with less pressure as I was appreciating the fact that I was back.

“It brought a lot of things back into perspective as well. I know that I can do other things and I will probably be able to do different things. But you only discover that then, which is a positive because since then I’ve known that any day it can stop.

“You have to be ready for the plan B or plan C. It’s quite a learning experience.”

Cech can quite rightly be very proud of how he coped with that challenge and went on to become a real Premier League great. And he can add to that reputation by helping Arsenal to finish the season strongly and match the English record if Eric Cantona by winning back to back titles with different clubs.

Walcott also has a great incentive to mark his 10 year anniversary with a performance and a goal against Cech’s former club this weekend. With these two inspired Gunners at either end of the pitch, are Chelsea heading for big trouble?