Wenger managed to pull off one of the most impressive and effective transfers in the past decade. Bringing in Petr Cech has addressed an issue Arsenal have been trying to handle since David Seaman. Sure, the Gunners had Lehmann and Almunia but they were not in the same league as the two mentioned above. Now that Cech is defending Arsenal’s goal, the entire team gets a boost of confidence. There are no worries that the keeper will slip up during set pieces, there are no worries that he will mess up and cost the team a goal and there are few worries when Arsenal are facing the world’s best such as Suarez, Aguero, Costa or Lewandowski.

Having a keeper of such quality can make the world of difference as seen throughout the season. Cech has made some amazing saves and is now splitting first place for the most clean-sheets of the season with Stoke’s Jack Butland. He also set the record for the most clean-sheets in Premier League history after Arsenal’s 2-0 win against Borunemouth. According to the Daily Mail, Cech who is now 33 has ended his 170^th game without conceding a goal which is one game more than David James who was the previous record holder. Arsenal’s keeper has at least 4 or 5 years left of his career which means he can improve on his numbers a lot. Cech was given a £5,000 prize that represents a donation on his behalf from the Premier League to a charity of his choice.

After receiving the award, Cech spoke about his early-career heroes and pointed out that he found something to learn from not one but six star-quality keepers. The focus he learned from Santiago Canizares who according to Cech, would never take his eyes off the ball. The determination he learned from Oliver Kahn who would do anything for his team. The biggest impact on Cech’s career came from Peter Schmeichel who is the Gunner’s overall favorite. He learned to defend like a center-back from Van der Saar and was inspired by an 18-year-old Iker Casillas who at such an early age become Real Madrid’s number one man. Cech ended his top six with the keeper who probably inspired him to fight for a clean-sheet record: Luigi Buffon. The Italian stays in Cech’s mind for the 18 clean-sheets he managed, clean-sheets that got Juventus the title.