WHAT do goalkeepers, defenders and fantasy football managers all love? Clean sheets, of course.
The Premier League has had a number of legends standing between the sticks, such as David Seaman, Peter Schmeichel, David de Gea and more.
Goalkeepers like nothing more than a clean sheet during a football matchPA
The term clean sheet originates from sports reporters’ notes back in the dayGetty
But none of them know more about shutting down opposition attackers in the English top flight than Chelsea legend Petr Cech.
Cech amassed a record 202 clean sheets throughout his celebrated 15-year career in the Premier League.
The Czech great played for Chelsea as well as Arsenal and won every major honour, mostly with the Blues.
Even the 40-year-old shot-stopper, who has sensationally crossed over to ice hockey, may not know why not conceding a goal is called a “clean sheet”.
But the history behind it is not as widely known.
In fact, the phrase originates from sports journalists.
Reporters used to record scores on white sheets of paper back in the day when there were no laptops.
So if a journalist’s sheet was clean at the end of the match, that would mean no goals had been scored against a team.
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Football is filled with colourful terms that many are unaware of their actual origins.
For example, football fans started to use the term hat-trick only after it was adopted by cricket.
The same goes for “nutmegging”, which has a much more complicated background.