Sports
12:03, 14-Aug-2018
Arsenal star Petr Cech in online spat with Leverkusen troll
Updated
11:20, 17-Aug-2018
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Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech has hit out at Bayer Leverkusen after the Bundesliga club's Twitter account mocked his lackluster performance in Sunday's 2-0 defeat to Manchester City.
The former Chelsea veteran was preferred in goal in the Premier League opener to summer arrival Bernd Leno, who joined from Leverkusen for a reported fee of 24.5 million US dollars. But he almost scored a bizarre own goal as he attempted a pass across the goal line.
Leverkusen's official twitter account mischievously picked up on Cech's narrow escape. /Twitter screengrab
Leverkusen's official twitter account mischievously picked up on Cech's narrow escape. /Twitter screengrab
On Monday, Leverkusen's English account replied to one Tweet highlighting the error, saying "We might know a guy...," seemingly suggesting their former number one Leno would be more adept at implementing Arsenal manager Emery's vision of passing out from the defense.
That was followed by a video of Leno playing out from the back in a game for the German side, with the caption: "In case you were all wondering how to play out from the back..."
Retweeted over 2,200 times, plenty of supporters of both clubs found the reply humorous, but Cech took to Twitter to post a reply on Monday evening, criticizing the post.
"@Arsenal we share important values which make us a big club not only on the football side. Fair competition, professionalism and sportsmanship are the biggest ones you teach young footballers and it's sad to see when other clubs don't share the same values @bayer04_en," Cech wrote.
Petr Cech has questioned the values of Bayer Leverkusen on his official twitter account after the German club mocked his performance. /Twitter screengrab
Petr Cech has questioned the values of Bayer Leverkusen on his official twitter account after the German club mocked his performance. /Twitter screengrab
Leverkusen's account replied to Cech's tweet soon after – saying their original "joke" had been taken more personally than it should have been.
It read: "Hi Petr. It seems our joke about wanting to see Leno, our former player, in action has been taken a bit more harshly/personally than intended. It was only a bit of banter. We're all for the values you've stated and wish you and your big club all the best. Nice 1v1 save on Aguero!"
It remains to be seen whether Cech will retain his place in goal when Arsenal visit his former club Chelsea on Saturday.
(With input from agencies)