Unai Emery gives Petr Cech no assurances over No1 role at Arsenal but Chelsea have not made contact
Former Blues stopper has vowed to fight for his place against £19m signing Bernd Leno next season
PETR CECH has vowed to stay and fight for his place at Arsenal.
The veteran keeper is under pressure after the £19million summer signing of Bernd Leno from Bayer Leverkusen.
But he is determined to see out the remaining year of his £100,000-a-week Emirates contract and insists there has been no contact with former club Chelsea.
No goalkeeper in Premier League history has kept more than Cech’s 201 clean sheets.
But the 36-year-old former Czech Republic international knows he still needs to impress new boss Unai Emery.
He said: “I have one more year of my contract and the club is still counting on me so far.
“My position here is the same as always. I am just concentrating on my job and trying to keep the number one jersey in the starting line-up.
“It has happened many times in my career that my club has signed a new goalkeeper.
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“The only thing you can do is work hard in training and try to show the manager that you are the only one who can play.
“I will do my job the best I can and then the manager has to decide who is going to be in the starting line-up and who isn’t.
“We have a large squad with many goalkeepers so there will always be people who are left behind.
“There is no sentiment involved, but there has not been any contact with Chelsea.
“The manager hasn’t told us who is going to be the number one but he has given the same message to the whole squad.
“Everyone works as hard as he can and then he makes the choice when the pre-season is over.
“Hopefully the number one is not only going to be on my shirt next season.”
Emery currently has four keepers in his squad, with David Ospina and Emiliano Martinez also challenging Cech and Leno for a place in the team.
But Cech, who won nine major trophies during his 11 years at Chelsea before his £10m move to Arsenal in 2015, is taking the change of manager in his stride.
He added: “Having one manager for more than 20 years is something unique and for the players who have been a long time at Arsenal this summer is something quite different.
“But I had 11 managers while I was at Chelsea so you can imagine that I am quite used to a lot of changes.
“That’s the way it is in modern football and when you have a team built from so many different environments, it’s nothing new for the squad to cope with the demands of working for someone new.
“What is impressive about the new coaching staff is well organised and professional they are.
“Everything has been running smoothly at the highest level from day one. The work we have put in has been the highest quality and that should show during the season.
“The aim for the new season is clear. The target is at least to finish in the top four where the club belongs because we should be in the Champions League.
“But that is only the basic target. We want to add that and obviously we would like to win the League.
“We haven’t spoken about reuniting the supporters because the only way to do that is with our performances on the pitch.
“What we talk about doesn’t matter, it’s about how we play.
“When you start winning games, everybody jumps on the same boat. It’s as simple as that.”
