Petr Čech has said Arsenal‘s failure to break Chelsea‘s record for least goals conceded in a Premier League season shows it’s a feat that is “impossible” to surpass.

The four-time Premier League champion played for Arsenal between 2015 and 2019 stood between the sticks for José Mourinho’s Chelsea side that conceded just 15 goals on way to the 2004-05 title.

Chelsea’s record looked under serious threat from Arsenal this season, after the Gunners conceded just five goals in their first 11 matches, It was a run that included a club-record eight clean sheets in a row. However, Mikel Arteta’s side have managed just four clean sheets in the 12 games since, and have conceded 17 goals in the season.

While it’s still the best defensive record in the league this year, Čech spoke of how Arsenal’s relative drop-off is indicative of how hard Chelsea’s record is to match.

“Well, I think this season actually showed how impossible it looks because, you know, after 10 games when Arsenal only conceded two goals, I got a lot of questions about it,” he told ESPN Brasil.

“And I said, well, I think it’s going to be hard for them to do it, but they were doing so well that actually they gave themselves a chance.

“So 10 games in, you think ‘oh they have a big chance. Then 15 games in you just go ‘hmm, I don’t think they can do this.’

“And now we are [here] after 21 games or whatever it is and the record’s gone. So it just shows you how difficult it is not to concede in the Premier League.

“You have to play well, you have to be organised, you need a bit of luck and everything come together and you play difficult opponents as always. So it’s not an easy task and I think this season was the first time we were kind of looking at it and thinking: ‘They might be close’ and they are not. So it just shows you how incredible the record is.”

Čech kept a remarkable 24 clean sheets in 2004-05 — no goalkeeper has managed more in the history of the league. That season saw him lift the first of his four Premier League titles in his 11 year stint at the club. Čech signed for Arsenal in 2015 and while he did win the Golden Glove in his debut season in north London, he never hit the heights he did at Chelsea.

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When asked about what made the Chelsea side of 2004-05 that contained John Terry and Ashley Cole so special, he said: “I think it came from the system and from the personalities as well because we suddenly realised that winning 1-0 gives you a chance to win the title and we were kind of proud to be the team who was hard to beat.

“So you could feel every single player on the pitch try to do their best to give a bit of work defensively to help the defenders and obviously me, as a goalkeeper, not to be constantly under pressure. And we had some fantastic players as well in the defensive line with [Claude] Makélélé sitting in front. And of course, it’s a huge help.

“But as I said, it’s not only about the five defenders and the goalkeeper, it is about the team, how well you help each other. And I think it came from José, who made us understand that being the team hard to beat and defend well gives you the best chance to win the league and this is what we did.

“Of course there were moments where you look back and you think ‘well we should have conceded three goals here and two goals there’ … we didn’t. So somehow we always managed not to concede and sometimes we were a bit lucky, yes we were, but I think that was the way we played and the attitude is what helped us to achieve that.”

Information from ESPN’s Renato Renise contributed to this report.