Petr Čech has been hailed as both the signing of the summer and the man who will turn Arsenal into title winners, but it doesn’t bother him.

Speaking to Match of the Day magazine (in an interview then posted by the Mirror) Čech insisted that he likes having that pressure on him.

“Of course it makes me feel very good,” Čech said when asked how it felt to be labelled as the player to finally bring the title back to north London. “But at the same time it creates pressure because everybody has big expectations.

“This is exactly what I like. Football is about challenges and I want to prove those people right. I’d like to say: ‘You were right, I was worth it!’ This is what you try to do as a new player.”

The big goalkeeper cost Arsenal £11M this summer but there is little doubt that he won’t be worth it.

An official debut last weekend saw him win the Community Shield against former club Chelsea, and the Czech international thinks the Gunners have a chance of going on to win the league this season.

“I hope we’re going to win enough games to be top. I think it’s possible. The team had a great season last year – that is a platform to build on and I believe we can make the step forward.”

From January until the end of the season no team won more points than Arsenal, but the first few months had already left us too far back to put any real pressure on Chelsea.

Now, with Čech in goal, we are thought to have our best chance of winning the league in a decade. It’s hard to argue with that, we just have to hope Čech – and his new teammates – do manage to thrive under the weight of expectation.