#3 Petr Cech
A relatively unknown talent from the Czech Republic was signed by Chelsea in 2004. An injury to Chelsea’s number one Carlo Cudicini paved way for Petr Cech’s meteoric rise. His spectacular performances in front of goal were one of the main reasons for Chelsea lifting the Premier League trophy that very season.
A life-threatening head injury in 2006 forced Petr to take a year off for recovering. Despite the major setback, he returned stronger and went on to make a total of 333 league appearances for the London club.
During this time, Cech performed brilliantly and was a key member of the team. It is no coincidence that Chelsea was at their best when Cech was making all the saves. The goalie also has kept the most number of clean sheets in the history of the Premier League.
In 2005, Cech managed to spend over thousand Premier League minutes without conceding, a feat which has only been matched by Dutch legend Edwin Van Der Sar. At the age of 34, Cech is still going strong and is one of Arsenal’s key players.
