While the majority of his team-mates have deserted Cobham to concentrate on international affairs, Petr Cech has been left behind, but is keen to stress there is still plenty keeping his mind occupied as he fights his way back from injury.

Firstly, he will today be reunited with his former goalkeeping coach at Rennes, Christophe Lollichon, who becomes Avram Grant's latest member of backroom staff.

It is an appointment welcomed, and indeed encouraged by Cech.

'I am looking forward to it, Avram asked me if I know someone I would like to work with. Christophe is good for me because I know his work, I had a really positive spell in France, one of my best years working with him. Even though it's nearly three years, and every player develops, I am looking forward to it.

'I was in touch with him, he was making my programme for the gym sometimes, and I had a chance to have him here. I said I would like it, though of course it was a decision of the manager.'

As well as Cech, Lollichon will be charged with maintaining the performance of Carlo Cudicini and Henrique Hilario, who Cech believes we are very lucky to have at the club.

'You always want to be on the pitch, but what has been great for years here is that Carlo has been here,' Cech explained.

'All the players have big confidence in him, know what he is capable of, and it's good for the team that when I get injured, they know they have a quality goalkeeper behind. It's a big advantage.

'Injuries happen, and you should have a quality backup, and we can say we are lucky to have Hilario as well. Last time when Carlo and I were injured he did really well and was important for us. He has experience, a lot of games in Portugal, and we can say we have no problem whatsoever because we have three goalkeepers who can play.'

Prior to Lollichon's arrival, our trio of stoppers had been working with reserve and Academy goalkeeping coach Mark Beeney, who Cech has kind words for.

'I think Mark is great in the way he works, similar to Silvino [Louro], so it was not such a big change for us. He knew me and was always ready, I can't say anything wrong about it.

'Training has been good, but we knew it was temporary, and in the end it was more than cover. He has been with us for six weeks, and I hope he enjoyed it as well, we weren't conceding goals. This is good for a goalkeeping coach too.'


The Czech goalkeeper was withdrawn at half-time of our 0-0 draw at Schalke last Tuesday with a calf problem, which ended his impressive run of clean sheets, which had stretched to five and a half games.

Injury in our defence is a recurring theme, with 14 combinations being used in our four-man defence since the beginning of the season.

'Last year it was central defenders, this year the black sheep was left-back. It started with Bridgey, now Ashley,' Cech sighed.

'Ricardo [Carvalho] is injured, but the biggest and unluckiest is JT because he never had problems, then last season he started and they just keep going on. This is not good for him and I hope this is the last injury he picks up, because he's had a few.'

To consider others' injuries before his own is representative of the team ethic Cech has, but with his own problems, he acknowledges things could be worse, and it has come at the best time possible.

'I always want to be on the pitch, to play as much as I can, especially in a good spell of clean sheets, both with Chelsea and the national team,' he said.

'The only good thing is it's not an injury for three months or longer, it can take three or four weeks, but with the human body nobody can tell how long. I'm trying to keep my fitness in the gym, to work hard although I'm limited, and when they tell me I can do more I'll be ready to do more.'

Prior to his injury, Cech was a major force in the turnaround of results that has seen us go almost two months without defeat, and counting. Allied to that is the oft-discussed change in playing style encouraged by Avram Grant.

Playing as he does with the whole pitch in front of him, there are few better placed to notice any differences than the giant goalkeeper.

Cech believes that this alteration is a constant and gradual change, rather than an overnight revolution.

'This is a slow process, so you need more time to really mark it. We've been working now for six weeks or so on that, you can see improvement, but the Premier League is a difficult league, and you can't play a nice passing game every week,' he reasoned.

'Sometimes you don't have the space to just score a goal, it depends on the game. At Wigan we played brilliantly in the first half, great passing and movement, suddenly in the second half it was not the same, but we are improving. By January we should see the difference.'

By that point Cech will have returned from injury, and concentrating again on his football.

The game is clearly his first love, but while others prefer to relax after training, Cech regularly takes on friend and rival Cudicini at a game of tennis, and the two recently temporarily immersed themselves in American football, taking in the New York Giants' training session at Cobham before seeing them in proper action at Wembley.

Cech admits there are few sports he doesn't have some partiality to.

'American football I quite like, Carlo explained the rules, there were many I didn't know, and if you really go into it and understand what is happening I think it's interesting to see, so I enjoyed the game at Wembley.

'Tennis, basketball, handball. I love watching snooker, and when you see someone who really knows how to play it's nice. Golf I can watch and play. Athletics I like, but not the marathon, running for a long period like that is not for me,' he laughed.

There will be less time for sports in the not too distant future though, as the next few months will mark huge changes in Cech's life. He and wife Martina are expecting their first baby, something he struggles to hide his excitement for, having just been listening to Paulo Ferreira's offspring making cow noises on the phone.

'I am really looking forward to that, it will change our life completely but we are really looking forward because you live to have kids, someone to give your experience to and enjoy so we are really, really looking forward to it,' beamed the usually calm Cech.

When reminded of the sleepless nights that so inevitably come with parenthood, his enthusiasm showed little sign of waning.

'It's difficult, it's all part of it at the beginning. Everyone had to go through this so I'm not going to be different. I might have less sleep than I used to but it's no problem,' he said.

Finally, his reponse to whether we may see another Cech in goal for Chelsea in the future was a very non-committal 'We will see.'

For now, Blues fans will be happy just to get this one back in goal and keeping clean sheets again.

By Andy Jones.