Over 1000 career appearances, 13 major honours, 75 England caps and THAT save against Sheffield United in 2003 – David Seaman is one of the most decorated English footballers of all-time. He may be a Gooner, but nobody is perfect.
During his 22 years in English football, Seaman clashed with Chelsea on countless occasions. From a Chelsea perspective, facing a goalkeeper of Seaman’s quality was a nightmare; but we had some players of our own that caused him many a problem. He revealed exclusively to Chelsea News that there was one player in particular that he dreaded facing when visiting Stamford Bridge: “I used to have great tussles with Zola. Even when he was playing for Parma, we played them in a European cup final and I made a couple of saves against him then obviously that carried on to Chelsea.”
Seaman went on to explain how Zola’s unpredictable nature was what made him so difficult to play against: “He was always tricky, you never knew what he was going to do and he was special at free-kicks as well.”
The Arsenal legend made his international debut in 1988, making an appearance for England in 15 consecutive years – a feat that can only be matched by Rio Ferdinand. We asked him who the best Chelsea representative he played with during his England career was, and there is no prizes for guessing who he chose: “I played a little bit with Frank Lampard. Graeme Le Saux was there when I was also playing but I would say Frank’s the best.”
After Sunday’s victory over West Brom, Chelsea have now won nine consecutive Premier League games. During that period we have scored 23 goals and conceded just twice. Seaman was impressed with the way Antonio Conte has got his side playing: “They’re (Chelsea) very strong, they’re just under the radar a little bit. They’re looking good, regretfully, but so are we, Arsenal are looking good too.”
Just seven points separate the top four teams in the Premier League as things stand. The competitiveness and unpredictability of the league is it’s greatest asset, and Seaman was excited with how things are shaping up this campaign: “It’s a better Premier League this season because there’s a lot of big teams in there that have got a great chance of winning it.”
Seaman knows better than most the credentials you need to become champions. He won three league titles during his time at Arsenal. We asked him who his tip was to finish top of the pack this season: “I want Arsenal, but I would go either Chelsea or Manchester City, both strong teams.”
We are not going to argue with you on that one, David.
