Petr’s 500th League Game: Draw in a Derby

Arsenal took the lead towards the close of the first half, when Wimmer scored an own goal just after Özil’s free kick. Kane was the one to equalise – he ended up getting past Petr from a penalty kick given in the 51st minute. “I guessed a side and unfortunately his shot just about missed my hip. It’s really too bad. Had it been directed a tiny bit closer to me I might have managed to stop it, but what can you do,” Petr addressed the penalty.

He was unhappy with the 1-1 score. “It’s a shame we weren’t able to bring the match to a successful finish, considering our prior 1-0 lead. But we have to admit that Tottenham then really sprang to life, became confident and threw us off balance. We did start pushing again towards the end but never finished off our goal opportunities,” Petr evaluated the whole game.

“We wanted to win so as to stay at the top and catch up with Liverpool and Chelsea, but we’ll take the point nevertheless. We were able to stay on a sixteen-match no-loss streak in all competitions,“ Petr pointed out.

After the two-weak national team break to follow, Arsenal will have another big game to look forward to: they are to face Manchester United at Old Trafford on 19th November. “Personally I’ll be able to train for it properly during the break and I’ll also have more time to regenerate. The majority of my teammates will be away attending to their national team commitments and there won’t be many of us left here. But we’re going to continue practicing and our numbers will be supplemented by our reserve teammates. The trainings tend to be fairly challenging,” stated Petr.

On Sunday he played in his 500th game in all league competitions – this includes all features in the Czech and French leagues, where Petr was active prior to his arrival at the Premier League. “Five hundred matches in league competitions really isn’t little and I’m pretty happy about it. It goes to show I’ve been able to maintain some sort of performance throughout my career and that my coaches trust me. As long as you’re healthy, the numbers keep growing. And I hope to add a little more.”