Petr Cech says Arsenal achieved a ‘very good result’ as they beat CSKA Moscow 4-1 in the home-leg of their Europa League quarter-final.
The 35-year-old, making his first appearance in the competition this season, could do nothing to stop Aleksandr Golovin’s excellent free-kick from cancelling out Aaron Ramsey’s opener, but he was pleased with the way his teammates responded even though they didn’t go on to get even more goals.
“It was a great performance,” told Arsenal Player after the match.
“Obviously offensively we played and created so many chances and I think that we should have scored more goals.
“Especially in the second half we had a lot of chances and we could have scored more goals but the important thing was that at 4-1 at half time you don’t want to concede.
“You want to make sure that they don’t get back into the game and we did that very well and had the game under control.”
The Gunners head to Moscow for the return leg next Thursday knowing they can’t rest on the laurels against a side that looked dangerous on the counter-attack. Some abject finishing aside, they really should have added to their solitary away goal.
“They even had some [chances] in the second half when they went to the counter-attack, they were very dangerous,” noted Cech.
“They have some very good players and obviously we were aware of that for the second half and we tried to limit them with chances.
“We tried to score more goals which we didn’t do in the second half but I think that we put ourselves in a very good position.
He added: “Any win at home is very important, especially when you give yourself a three-goal advantage. At this point, it’s a very good result but obviously, we are only halfway and we need to make sure that when we go to Russia we are ready to compete again.”
Cech looks likely to continue in goal both in Europe and the Premier league after Arsene Wenger confirmed that David Ospina had suffered an ankle injury in training that will sideline him for two to three weeks.
We have better players and a big psychological advantage.
Just do what needs to be done in the second leg and don’t get complacent
I predict Moscow taking a 2 nil lead and a nervy finish. It’s the Arsenal way.
Well, a nervy finish would not surprise me–but it’s very hard to imagine that they will get a clean sheet.
Their 3 man defense is extremely vulnerable to quick counter given combine age of 107. But we are dependent on fullbacks (particularly Bellerin) to help provide pace out wide which also leaves us open to a reverse counter. Iwobi did well for 10 minutes coming on fashioning 3 key opportunities. I think with Mhki injured, Iwobi may be able to exploit them on the break if we keep things slightly tighter and look toward the counter. They will have to come at us for goals so there will be plenty of opportunities to pick them apart but we will also… Read more »
We will be fine in Moscow as long as we do not slow it right down and hope to pass the ball around for 90 minutes without creating anything. Do that and we are asking for trouble.
We are best as a fearless front foot attacking team. When we stop attacking it seems we forget how to play. We can still keep a good defensive structure but attack wherever possible.
Sterile possession sends our own players to sleep and we always get caught out.