A wry smile often crept across Arsene Wenger’s face when he was asked to react to the latest manager unceremoniously shoved through the revolving door at Chelsea.

“Football is about cohesion, about stability,” he said in December 2015, shortly after Jose Mourinho’s second sacking at Stamford Bridge. “Success is linked with talent and cohesion.”

Just a few months earlier, Petr Cech had crossed the philosophical divide stretching between west and north London after a meeting at Roman Abramovich’s house in which the Blues owner suspended his notorious ruthless streak and sanctioned the goalkeeper’s transfer to a Premier League rival.

Tomorrow night’s Europa League Final against Chelsea will be the last chapter for Cech after a four-year stay which ends in retirement this summer, despite several offers to continue his glittering playing career elsewhere.

It is a clash which Cech felt was his destiny for some time, waiting in the Mestalla mixed zone after Arsenal’s semi-final win at Valencia to watch Chelsea’s penalty shoot-out with Eintracht Frankfurt on a journalist’s phone.

Helping to secure the Gunners’ first European trophy in 25 years would be a fitting way to bow out. Prominent among the myriad reasons Cech opted to join Arsenal was a desire to help replicate the Blues’ Champions League success at a club perennially flummoxed by the last-16 stage. He ended up barely playing in the competition beyond his first season as Wenger opted to rotate Cech in favour of David Ospina before the Gunners twice failed to qualify.

The prospect of a third consecutive year without Champions League football puts Arsenal under considerable pressure in Baku but, contrary to popular belief, Cech believes these are the moments when the Gunners thrive.

“It will sound strange but I think generally at Arsenal there is not enough pressure,” Cech, 36, told Standard Sport.

“Arsene is a real gentleman. As much as he hates losing, he stays a gentleman. If you lose, you win, you lose, you win, he kind of carries on. That’s something I’ve never experienced before.

“At Chelsea, at the times when we drew, it felt like a funeral in the dressing room. It was so bad. If we drew against a big team at home, it was like, ‘Oh no, it is impossible we didn’t win at home’. It came from everywhere: the players, the coach. Since the start when I was there, the pressure was there every game.”

That observation distils the magnitude of the task Unai Emery inherited and explains why the Arsenal boss regularly refers to creating “a new mentality” in this current group.

Wenger’s longevity was the antithesis of the hire-and-fire culture at Stamford Bridge, but mental fragility became a common criticism.

Yet, Cech, who won the Champions League, the Europa League, four Premier League titles, four FA Cups and three League Cups in his 11 years at Chelsea before adding the 2016-17 FA Cup to his haul with Arsenal, believes the Gunners have shown they can deliver when it matters most.

“I feel that when Arsenal need to win, we win,” he said. “You go to Athens in the last Champions League group game [of 2015] needing to win 2-0 and you win 3-0. No matter where, we win, because that fire was right behind us as we had to really win. The pressure was what was pushing us.

“I completely disagree with people who say, ‘When you pressure comes, [you don’t win]’. No. I think we lose points where there is not enough pressure. So, we went to Everton [on April 7]. You know you win, you go third... you lose, you stay fourth. We lost. That week with Wolves [losing at Molineux, either side of defeats to Crystal Palace and Leicester], it was the same situation.

“There was always a cushion, there was always, ‘It is not such a disaster’. We should probably create more pressure on everybody because that would give people more to think about.

“We went to Napoli [in the quarter-finals] and everybody says, ‘Oh, you are rubbish away, they are brilliant at home’. We win 2-0, and then you go, ‘How do you explain that?’ If you are under pressure and you can’t perform, you lose that game. But we didn’t because the pressure was so high. You know you lose, you are out. You lose 3-1 at Rennes [in the last 16, first leg], you have to win at home: you win. The semi-final? We win. So, the examples are there.”

Team Games Clean sheets Chmel Blsany 4 2 Sparta Prague 12 6 Rennes 78 27 Chelsea 494 228 Arsenal 138 54 Czech Republic 124 50

Cech is unsure of his next move. He is considering three or four offers and would prefer a technical director or coaching role, but he has already pursued one side venture: a charity single, entitled ‘That’s Football’, released earlier this month with the proceeds going to the Willow Foundation, the charity set up by former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson and his wife, Megs.

The song is co-written with Queen drummer Roger Taylor. Cech is coy about his team-mates hearing it in the dressing room. ‘Under Pressure’ might be a more appropriate choice tomorrow.

“That’s Football” - Petr Cech and Roger Taylor - released on Virgin Records - available to download now on Spotify and iTunes. All proceeds go to Willow Foundation - PetrCechRogerTaylor.lnk.to/ThatsFootballSo