Ambitious Cech needs cup to hold

Petr Cech has let more things slip through his fingers than normal in the past 12 months, but failing to get hold of a trophy is what troubles the goalkeeper most.

Cech's high-profile errors against Arsenal and Aston Villa cost Chelsea crucial points in the title race while his blunder in a decisive Euro 2008 game, when he fumbled a simple cross to gift Turkey a late equaliser, contributed to the Czech Republic's early exit.

It was what happened at Chelsea that shocked him the most, though, because last season was his first since joining in 2004 in which he didn't win any silverware. He had to settle for runners-up medals in the League, Champions League and Carling Cup.

Now Cech warns he and his team-mates are determined to make up for that this term. "To not win anything was a new experience for a lot of us," said the £7million signing from Rennes.

"It was a strange feeling. It was very disappointing because we want to be first, we don't want to be second. It has given us the motivation for the new season. No one has had to say anything to each other in the dressing room about putting it right - everyone knows that second place isn't good enough for Chelsea.

"We want to win trophies. That is what the aim has been from the moment we all turned up for pre-season training."

Chelsea take on Lokomotiv Moscow in the Russian capital tonight before facing either AC Milan or Sevilla there on Sunday as manager Luiz Felipe Scolari tries to provide the attacking football owner Roman Abramovich has craved.

But Cech still believes the team's chance of success will be built from the back.

The defence has been boosted this season by the £16.2million signing of Jose Bosingwa and Cech added: "Our back four is one of the strongest in the game.

"It gives us a lot of confidence that we can win the title."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in