Arsenal’s decision to sign Petr Cech is already paying dividends

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Arsenal focused their efforts on signing Petr Cech from Chelsea.

Arsenal’s decision to sign Petr Cech is already paying dividends as the Czech international goalkeeper currently boasts the best save percentage in the Premier League.

In the second half of last season, the Gunners started to string together the sort of form you would associate with a Premier League winner, including eight straight wins at the Emirates.

There were a number of reasons for their stunning form, with one of those being David Opsina.

The Colombia international dislodged Wojciech Szczesny as the club’s number one and performed well, prompting a number of observers to no longer consider the club’s goalkeeping area problematic.

Despite his good form, though, Arsenal went out and purchased Petr Cech from rivals Chelsea – a decision which, while lauded, still raised a few eyebrows in regards to areas in need of improvement.

Was signing Cech more important than bringing in a striker or new defensive midfielder? While that’s open for debate, the decision to sign the 33-year-old is already paying off.

As per the table provided by Opta Stats, Cech currently ranks fourth in terms of saves made, but is also among the keepers with the least number of goals conceded in the Premier League.

As such, Cech officially has the best save percentage ratio of any goalkeeper in the Premier League, at 82%, while is also bettered only by Hugo Lloris and Joe Hart in terms of goals conceded per game.

Cech currently averages 3.875 saves per match, a vast improvement on fellow shot-stoppers Wojciech Szczesny and David Ospina over the past few years, though the latter currently holds a better goals conceded record.