Petr Cech’s opening competitive match for Arsenal against West Ham could have gone better.

It could have gone better for the entire team, to be honest. However, although the goalkeeper wasn’t solely to blame for the two goals we let the Hammers put past us, he definitely should have done better.

The Czech international recognises this but also knows the importance of wiping the slate clean and learning from your mistakes.

“I think if you spill the milk or coffee in your kitchen you don’t just let it lay there, you wipe it off and clean it,” he said. “It is the same thing when you do something wrong, you just take the first opportunity to make this right and correct it.

“This is the only way. When you know the world well, you are prepared and if a bad game happens it is probably part of football and you need to understand that.”

The keeper continued, “I had a great pre-season, I was feeling well going into the game, excited to play my first home game. Then obviously the game did not go according to plan for everybody, particularly me.

“But we recovered from there and it was good to see the reaction of the team because it was a big blow as we had wanted to start on a winning note.”

A couple of things that this shows is firstly, that Cech probably has quite a clean kitchen, and secondly, he’s a professional who’s been there before. The goalkeeper knows better than anyone if he hasn’t performed as he should and he’s aware of how to correct it.

Sure enough in our next home fixture against Liverpool, the 33-year-old had a fantastic game, pulling off two world class saves early in the first half and preventing us from once again being humiliated on home turf.