Cech’s passing accuracy in the Premier League last season was well below that of Ederson, who topped the list

In his spare time Petr Cech likes to play the drums. He has a YouTube channel with 46,000 subscribers where he periodically posts covers of songs by Nirvana, Stereophonics and Foo Fighters. He has even played with Roger Taylor of Queen. And in a way Cech’s choice of hobby feels strangely fitting for a man whose game is based on the percussive fundamentals of goalkeeping — he is an archetypal, old-school “shot-stopper” — but in the modern game, clubs are keen for their goalkeepers to be more than just blunt instruments. Increasingly they are expected to pull the strings.

In Arsenal’s first game of the season, against Manchester City, Cech looked like a man out of time. Unai Emery, the new Arsenal head coach, is