A successful 400th Premier League cap: It’s an honour, says Petr

It was Petr’s priority that the Gunners win and retain hope of getting in the top four. “A win was more important than keeping a clean sheet. But we did win, so we’re happy with how things played out. It’s just too bad I lost the clean slate to a goal which shouldn’t have counted since it was scored by hand,” Petr referred Crouch’s controversial strike which lowered Arsenal’s lead to 1-2 in the 68th minute.

“I’m happy to have won this jubilee Premier League game,” admitted Petr and added: “Not everyone gets to gather this many caps in one of the best competitions in the world, so it really is an honour and personal success to have come this far. To me it signifies that I’ve been able to maintain my performance at its highest over an extended period of time – otherwise I’d never have reached this number.”

Petr was pleased to have marked his jubilee cap with a particularly crucial win; the Gunners needed three points in order to stay in reach of the top four. “We won at the opponent’s pitch, where Arsenal hadn’t been all that successful previously. We kept the first half totally under control and could even have led by a higher margin. At 2-0 Stoke City started pushing, got in a couple of corner kicks and scored that questionable goal but we quickly added two more goals and seized a well-deserved win,” stated Petr.

He continues to believe that Arsenal will end up seizing the fourth place, as well. “We need to keep winning while our rivals lose,” said the Gunners’ goalie. “We’re doing really well just now, the formation change helped quite a bit. We’ve improved since we started playing with three defenders. You can feel the whole team’s gained strength, too. In busy times like these we need every last player. In the Stoke game, guys who had started out on the bench, like Aaron Ramsey, ended up really pitching in,” said Petr.

For Arsenal, the last two Premier League rounds mean another two matches a week. They are to face Sunderland on Tuesday and finish the week off with a match against Everton.

“The Champions League qualification battle is going to be intense. The fans might have preferred if the same drama transpired in relation to the title as such, but Chelsea have got it in their pocket already and, quite honestly, I think they really deserve it. The last part of the season was pretty much about whether they would end up succumbing to pressure or not – but they didn’t,” Petr congratulated his former club.