by Lewis Ambrose

Monday saw Petr Čech become Arsenal’s first signing of the summer, and the goalkeeper has spoken to Arsenal Player about how vital pre-season will be.

With the occasional change, the goalkeeper lined up behind a consistent back four for 11 years at Chelsea but, following his transfer, will have new teammates to get used to.

“We will have the whole pre-season to work together and to get used to each other,” said the new Arsenal goalkeeper.

“The fact that you have a settled back four with people who have known each other for some time is an advantage.

“I will just need to find the understanding between me and the defenders. But we have a whole pre-season and the pre-season games to get used to each other and I think that we will find a way to make it work pretty soon.”

Training will be incredibly vital, with the Arsenal first-team only scheduled to play four pre-season fixtures before the Community Shield against Čech’s old team Chelsea.

The goalkeeper, signed for around £10M, knows that it isn’t just a case of getting used to four defenders, but the entire squad.

“You hardly start with 11 guys in the first game and finish with them in the last game – you need everybody and if you want to challenge people in Europe and challenge for every competition, you obviously need every single member of the team.”

The hope is that the giant Czech international will add some quality and experience in an area where Arsenal have been error prone over the last decade. If he does, we will have a great chance of success.

“I’m really looking forward to playing with my new team-mates and hopefully to have the same successes I had in the past.”

We hope you have that too Petr, we really do.