Petr Cech Explains What Thibaut Courtois Was Trying To Do When Taking His Penalty Shoot

Arsenal have won the Community Shield 4-1 on penalties after drawing 1-1 with Chelsea after 90 minutes.

Victor Moses had opened the scoring shortly after the interval, with Sead Kolasinac heading Arsenal level with just eight minutes to go.

The shootout was remarkable as for the first time, it featured the new ‘ABBA’ system, where the team who goes second takes two penalties consecutively.

Chelsea certainly didn’t help themselves by putting in Thibaut Courtois to take a penalty.

Using a goalkeeper is normally a last resort, but the 25-year-old actually took penalty number two.

It’s fair to say the Belgian won’t be taking one again after his abysmal attempt:

https://twitter.com/ArthurSenange/status/894213820390019073

More worrying, Alvaro Morata also put his wide too. Antonio Conte will have been expecting his club record signing to come up with a much better attempt.

However, Courtois’ miss was the big talking point.

Why was he even taking a spot-kick, especially so early? Equally, why did he take it quite like that?

Cech explains what Courtois was doing

Petr Cech revealed an interesting theory after the final whistle.

“We played together and we made a lot of challenges during the training session in the penalty shootout,” he told BT Sport.

“This is not usually where he shoots, so this is probably why he missed because normally he buries it in the top corner on the other side, the way I went – so obviously, maybe the fact that we know each other and I know their players made it more difficult for them.”

It seems Courtois actually had a genuine motive for what he was trying to do, even if it went horribly wrong.

Twitter destroys him

And the stopper took an absolute pasting on social media:

This may have been ‘just’ the Community Shield, but the defeat won’t have done Chelsea’s confidence much good as they prepare to start their title defence at home to Burnley next Saturday.