Frank Lampard has selected and named legend Petr Cech in his 25-man squad for the Premier League campaign ahead.
Desperate times call for desperate measures as the Blues make a surprise inclusion to the final squad for the 2020/21 season. They have named 38-year-old and club legend, Petr Cech, as an “emergency goalkeeper”.
Cech, who is also Chelsea Football Club’s technical and performance advisor, has been summoned out of retirement with the London club’s problems at the back continuing to cause issues.
Due to another poor start by Kepa Arrizabalaga to the season and newcomer Edouard Mendy still finding his rhythm in between the sticks, the Blues have opted for a safe option to help prevent any further worries of leaking in goals profusely.
"Chelsea have named retired goalkeeper Petr Cech in their 25-man Premier League squad as emergency cover.The surprise inclusion of the 38-year-old, who works as the club’s technical and performance advisor, has been described by Chelsea as “a precautionary step due to the unprecedented conditions currently caused by the Covid-19 crisis”. (Via: Sky Sports)"
Lampard’s opening fixtures has seen them let in nine goals already in the Premier League and 10 across all competitions. In the league run, they conceded six goals over 180 minutes of football. In one game they trailed after conceding all three goals in the first half and had to come back from behind to steal a point from the game.
In the other game where they conceded three, they went up twice but squandered the lead on both occasions, managing to only take a point from the encounter, which was held at the Bridge. They now sit in eighth place and are already favourites for one of the worst defensive teams in the league.
Chelsea’s Premier League squad
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Edouard Mendy, Petr Cech, Willy Caballero,
Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger, Marcos Alonso, Andreas Christensen (homegrown),
Ben Chilwell (homegrown), Kurt Zouma, Fikayo Tomori (homegrown),
Reece James (U21), Cesar Azpilicueta, Emerson Palmieri,
Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante, Christian Pulisic, Billy Gilmour (U21),
Timo Werner, Olivier Giroud, Mason Mount (U21), Callum Hudson-Odoi (U21)), Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz (U21), Tammy Abraham (homegrown),
Gladly, in their most recent Champions League game, also their opener of the tournament, Frank’s boys played out to a 0-0 draw with Sevilla, which was Chelsea’s first 0-0 draw under Frank Lampard. Adding to this, it was only their third clean sheet of the eight opening games.
Cech is a world-class emergency
If it were up to me and if Petr Cech was willing to sign a fulltime professional contract again, he’d walk straight into my side, if the team was suffering from a Kepa headache.
The decorated stopper has seen most of his success at Stamford Bridge and was one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League era in his time. The Blues have also said the reason behind them adding him to the EPL roster is because of the unprecedented times that COVID-19 has brought forward.
The former Chelsea number 1 has been helping out with the other stoppers during training so will slot in as if he was part of the team all season already.