London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal are currently battling for a place in next season’s Champions League along with another London club, Tottenham Hotspurs. The Blues have secured their spot in the top four of the Premier League, but Arsenal require a win on the final day of the season against Newcastle United to guarantee their entry into Europe’s elite.

The Gunners also have a chance of upsetting Chelsea in third, if the Blues lose at home to Everton, or if they draw against the Toffees, whereas the Gunners win by a huge margin, thereby leapfrogging their neighbours into third via goal difference.

Chelsea and Arsenal have had memorable battles in recent seasons, but none of those matches were a Premier League title-decider, much less a cup final. In the last eight seasons, Arsenal have failed to win a major trophy, whereas Chelsea have won 9 trophies during that time, including the holy grail – the Champions League final against Bayern Munich last May.

Cech, speaking on the eve of the Europa League final against FC Basel, admitted that Chelsea have lacked stability in recent season. However, he believes that the fans much prefer their club winning trophies rather than having a stable atmosphere.

Arsene Wenger has seen 13 Chelsea managers come and go during his 17-year tenure at the Emirates; however, he has still won fewer trophies as compared to Chelsea during that period. The managerial merry-go-round is set to continue at Stamford Bridge next season with the arrival of another manager, but that has not deterred Cech in taking a dig at Arsenal.

According to Metro, Cech said, “If you see the stability and organisation and the control Arsenal have it’s amazing. But if you ask their fans about the last eight years they’d say they’ve not won anything and they don’t like it. Our fans may say ‘Yes, we’d like to see more stability,’ but we’d rather have the cups. It’s very hard to choose.”

It indeed is a conundrum whether fans would want trophies at the club, or if they choose stability instead, which usually derives long-term benefits for the clubs. In the fierce result-oriented nature of football in recent years, it would come as no shock to see fans wanting trophies at their club irrespective of a managerial change every season.

However, the ideal situation would have to be winning trophies whilst having stability at the club; Manchester United are renowned for this mantra. However, Cech believes that the Blues have instilled a mentality to win, irrespective of who the manager is.

The 30-year-old said, “The ideal situation is Manchester United scenario where you have the same manager and you win a large number of trophies. But we seem to prove all these things wrong. It just shows at Chelsea that everybody is trying to do his best, no matter who the manager is, no matter how the season goes.”