Arsenal custodian Petr Cech has come out all guns blazing on Twitter, getting embroiled in an spat with Bayer Leverkusen English account after the Bundesliga side took a sly dig at him and his perceived inability towards playing from the back.
Cech had a difficult start to the 2018/19 season, as did the rest of his Gunners teammates, for defending champions Manchester City humbled them 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium.
While the veteran shot-stopper made a number of key stops to prevent the hosts from losing by an embarrassing scoreline, he looked uncomfortable almost every time he was tasked with bringing the ball out.
New manager Unai Emery insists on the approach and with summer signing Bernd Leno waiting in the wings, some Arsenal fans took to Twitter to vent their fury:
Cech 😩😩😩 pic.twitter.com/o4WSe4gCH5
— Terje (@ArsenalTerje) August 12, 2018
The GIF doesn’t exactly flatter Cech, but worse was to come as Bayer Leverkusen responded:
We might know a guy…
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) August 12, 2018
And they left no doubt that they were referring to former Bayer keeper Bernd Leno:
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
Suffice to say, Cech didn’t take to the jokes/trolling kindly and he quickly fired off a response:
.@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
Fair play to Bayer Leverkusen, for they apologised almost immediately:
Hi Petr. It seems our joke about wanting to see Leno, our former player, in action has been taken a bit more harshly/personally than intended. It was only a bit of banter. We’re all for the values you’ve stated and wish you and your big club all the best. Nice 1v1 save on Aguero!
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) August 13, 2018
Serie A side AS Roma have a viral Twitter account and they didn’t waste the chance to weigh in on the debate:
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) August 13, 2018
So while Leno was on the bench for the City tie, will the German take Cech’s place between the sticks the next time the Gunners play?
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Cech, in his post-match interview, insisted he was comfortable with Arsenal’s new approach but the jury is still out whether the veteran can really embody Emery’s style.
Arsenal next play crosstown rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday (2200 IST).