Micah Richards says he often forgets that ‘top’ player actually played for Arsenal

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Micah Richards was shocked upon remembering that one Premier League icon used to play for Arsenal.

Six former Arsenal players are in the Premier League Hall of Fame following their stellar contributions to the club.

Arsene Wenger’s glory days saw the Gunners house some of the world’s best talents, and when looking at Mikel Arteta’s squad today, things haven’t changed.

What also hasn’t changed between Wenger and Arteta’s squads is how many former Chelsea players featured.

Many players have left Chelsea for Arsenal over the years, with the last one to make the move in Wenger’s era being Petr Cech. 

• READ MORE: Petr Cech thinks one Arsene Wenger signing got it all wrong at Arsenal

Micah Richards forgot Petr Cech played for Arsenal

Arsenal signed Cech in 2015 for a fee of £10m from Chelsea after the Blues upgraded their option the year prior with Thibaut Courtois.

The decision to bring the Premier League veteran to the club was surprising, given how long he’d been a loyal servant to Chelsea.

Micah Richards, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer recently discussed the subject of Chelsea’s loyal servants when hosting a quiz asking: Which Players Have Played The Most Under Jose Mourinho? 

Unsurprisingly, Cech’s name was mentioned in the debate.

“He’d have to be in there. I mean, not just with Chelsea, but also Arsenal,” Lineker said on The Rest Is Football episode.

Richards responded by suggesting that Cech’s time at Arsenal is easy to forget about when speaking of his career at Stamford Bridge.

“Oh yeah. You forget that, don’t you?” Richards said.

“Yeah, he was top. He was a little bit strange the way he kicked the ball, wasn’t he? He sometimes looked a bit off balance, but he was a top goalkeeper.”

Cech was an iconic goalkeeper at Chelsea, and without a doubt one of the world’s best, but at Arsenal, he was largely an expiring version of the icon that was on show in West London.

Petr Cech’s record at Arsenal compared to Chelsea

It was never expected that, at 33, Cech would arrive at Arsenal and achieve anything close to what he did at Chelsea.

That being said, there was a real drop in quality from the shot-stopper, who was replaced as Arsenal’s number one after three seasons.

The numbers tell the story of how Cech’s time at Arsenal differed from his time at Chelsea, with his clean sheet ratio dropping quite significantly.

Cech will go down as one of Chelsea’s greatest ever goalkeepers, but at Arsenal, the legendary ‘keeper isn’t near the discussion.