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Premier League

Sep 17, 2017 at 1.30pm UK

Chelsea
0-0
Arsenal

Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech: 'We must prove ourselves against Chelsea'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 15 September 2017

Petr Cech admits that Arsenal's heavy Premier League defeat to Liverpool "was not acceptable", but is happy with his side's response since then.

Petr Cech has targeted this weekend's meeting against former club Chelsea as a chance for Arsenal to prove that they have what it takes to win the Premier League title.

The Gunners have already dropped six points in their first four games, leaving them four points adrift of early leaders Manchester United and Manchester City.

After picking up a convincing 3-0 home win over Bournemouth last time out, however, Cech believes that Arsenal have now moved on from their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Liverpool and are in a good position to leave Stamford Bridge with all three points on Sunday.

"We have to draw a line under what happened [at Anfield] and move forward," he told Sky Sports News. "We played Chelsea in the Community Shield and in the FA Cup final last season, so we know we can beat them. They know they lost two games against us that they were not happy to lose, so this is something we have to use to our advantage.

"The games we played at Stoke and Liverpool didn't go the way we wanted. The performance at Stoke was much better than the result, because we had enough chances and opportunities, but we couldn't find the final pass or finish moves off. It was not the result we wanted or expected, and probably deserved.

"Liverpool was a big slap in the face, it wasn't acceptable for a club the size of Arsenal and the team that we are. We had to really make sure we put things right against Bournemouth and the reaction from everyone was brilliant. The determination and intensity was there against Bournemouth, the way we played was more like it.

"Chelsea have the same objective as us, they want to challenge for the title so it's a big game this weekend. If we want to be close to the top of the table after two defeats then we have to win the big games and this is the first opportunity for us to do so."

Arsenal, who continued their recovery with a 3-1 win over FC Koln in the Europa League on Thursday night, have not beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge since October 2011.