Farewell Petr Cech: Thibaut Courtois, Granit Xhaka and Asmir Begovic pay homage to a Chelsea and Arsenal great

EXCLUSIVE

Petr Cech will call time on his illustrious 15-year career in the Premier League when the goalkeeper makes his potential farewell appearance for Arsenal in the Europa League Final .

The 37-year-old has the chance to cap off his trophy-laden career, which has spanned 20 years, in the perfect way should the Gunners beat Chelsea - the club where Cech made his name at - in Baku.

"It would probably be the best possible ending for me," Cech told Standard Sport when interviewed about his retirement back in April.

"It will be a fantastic achievement for the club and for everybody involved. Not only for me, because it's been a while since Arsenal won a European trophy.

"So it will actually be a great ending for me - and a great trophy for the fans."

That it will indeed be, although such an outcome will come at the expense of Cech's former club Chelsea where he spent 11 years between 2004 and 2015, and won 13 major trophies.

Cech has made no secret of the fact that he always envisioned retiring at Stamford Bridge, although that became difficult once Chelsea recalled goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois from his loan spell at Atletico Madrid.

The Belgian replaced Cech as the Blues' first-choice shot-stopper under Jose Mourinho, but fondly recalled how professional Cech remained during the single season they played alongside each other.

"He was really professional and also really friendly and he wanted me to do well," Courtois said.

"In some situations you can maybe have that [thing] where if competitors play, I don't say you wish him bad but sometimes you think, if he makes a mistake maybe next time I will play.

"But, with him, I never felt that."

Courtois' comments about Cech's character echo those of Asmir Begovic, who arrived at Chelsea shortly after Cech left for Arsenal in 2015.

Despite not getting the chance to work with Cech at Chelsea, Begovic knows him well off the pitch - and had only words of praise for a goalkeeper he ranks as No.1 in Premier League history.

"There was no weakness in his game - that's what stood out to me," Begovic said.

"He was definitely the best goalkeeper, maybe one of the best goalkeepers in the world, at that time."

Watch the video above as Standard Sport's Vaishali Bhardwaj talks to Courtois, Begovic, Granit Xhaka and Cech himself to look back at the goalkeeper's superb 15-year career in the English top-flight.

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