Petr Cech is not amused.
The Arsenal goalkeeper was given the nod to start the club’s Premier League opener against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon, despite the summer arrival of Bernd Leno.
Things didn’t turn out all that well for Unai Emery’s new side. The English champions eventually won the game 2-0, their high pressing making it difficult for Arsenal to try and play out from the back.
Already a goal down with just over 20 minutes played, Cech came perilously close to doubling the visitor’s lead when attempting to play a first-time pass to one of his defenders. Receiving the ball from Matteo Guendouzi, the former Chelsea goalkeeper completely mishit his attempted pass, rolling it narrowly wide of his post.
The incident was widely mocked on Twitter, with one of Bayer Leverkusen’s official accounts also quick to join in.
Leverkusen are, of course, the club from which Arsenal signed Leno in the summer, and sent a reminder that their former goalkeeper had no such problems playing out from the back.
In case you all were wondering how to play out of the back… pic.twitter.com/LZkxznsGPs
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) August 12, 2018
Clearly, this hasn’t gone down all that well with Cech. Responding with a tweet of his own on Monday evening, the 36-year-old quite obviously hasn’t seen the funny side.
‘.@Arsenal we share important values which make us a big club not only on the football side,’ Cech’s tweet reads. ‘Fair competition, professionalism and sportsmanship are the biggest ones you teach young footballers and it’s sad to see when other clubs don’t share the same values. .@bayer04_en
.@Arsenal we share important values which make us a big club not only on the football side . Fair competition, professionalism and sportsmanship are the biggest ones you teach young footballers and it’s sad to see when other clubs don’t share the same values. .@bayer04_en
— Petr Cech (@PetrCech) August 13, 2018
Oh dear.
Arsenal’s next game sees them travel to London rivals Chelsea for the late afternoon kick-off in the Premier League next Saturday. It remains to be seen whether or not Cech keeps his place as Emery’s first choice goalkeeper.
