Bernd Leno was absolutely outstanding in last night’s victory on penalties at Anfield last night, saving two Liverpool spot-kicks in the process.
To be fair, Leno has lñooked a bit rusty lately and there were many articles suggesting that Arsenal had sold the wrong keeper, but there will be no-one suggesting that this morning after Leno was easily man of the match last night.
Obviously Arteta was asked about Leno after the game, and he responded: “We had two fantastic goalkeepers and they were both performing really well. Bernd, before he had the injury, and then Emi when he came in.
“But we had to make a decision and I think it was a moment when Emi needed the next step and financially it was a really interesting proposal for us. We need to manage the resources that we have to strengthen the team. I am really happy for Bernd and for his performance, the character that he’s shown tonight. It was really helpful to get us through to the next round.”
Normally it would have been Martinez in goal last night as it was a cup game, but Arteta made it clear that new signing Alex Runarsson was not yet ready to take his place in the side. “When Emi left, we were looking for a second goalkeeper. We were in the market and it took a little bit longer than expected to get that position filled in, so Alex came in and has only been with us a week and had a small issue as well. Again, in time things will evolve and Alex will be more comfortable here and they will both play.”
So, thanks to Leno for last night, and it seems like he has got all his confidence back. Also it is good that Arteta has made it clear that Martinez decided he “needed the next step”, so maybe we can now accept that he has gone and get behind Leno from now on…
Been reading Saliva could head back to France on loan. Very good move.
Amidst all the whinings and moaning from fans questioning why he doesn’t play, why Arteta leaves him out and stuff. Apparently he lost his mother this past May, and he’s been going through a whole lot of stuff since then, it doesn’t help that at 19 after losing his mom, he’s in another country all alone.
All of this is what Arteta was always talking about whenever he says Saliba needs time settle.
Sending him back to France, closer to family would do a whole lot of good for the lad.
He’s 19 so he’ll need all of that.
As fans sometimes we ask dumb questions and say stuff without knowing the whole truth. All of the whole questioning Arteta, turns out he’s only protecting the boy and shielding him from pressure at this stage.
Also when you look at fans expectations, it’s more ridiculous that people expected him to come in and walk into the team like Van Djik
Any news on aour or partey eddie ?
Wait for it today..
Just know Aouar ain’t going to PSG.
Partey would be later
So today is the big news?
I read somewhere that arsenal introduce how pronounce aouar
Nah ain’t saying today’s the is the big news… By there should be media updates bout what’s going on today.
We’ll know more today
And, to be honest Eddie, I was not impressed with Saliba’s English in his early interviews. C
Especially considering he knew he was coming here a year ago!
Yeah Pat I saw something like that too. He should’ve worked on his English more.
Though Charles Watts says he could still stay. It depends on the game time he’ll get.
He’ll need to work on his English more if he wants to play senior team. Personally I’ve never been worried about Arteta not using him.
He’ll play when the time is right
With all things considered regarding Saliba
Mom passing away
His injury nightmare
French league getting cancelled early
The the French cup final thing.
Thats a lot for a young lad to endure in a short space of time, you shouldn’t be so harsh on the boy
It takes alot longer than a year to learn English.
The fact that he could take an interview in English shows he was learning it well
Am sorry to say he would walk into the team and replace Holding unless Arteta is bias. Its just a matter of time before Holding’s errors result to goals. He won’t give me a heart attack…..no Sir.
I was very pleased with leno last nigh. Stella performance. Alot of people have been second guessing him and forgetting that last season he was out 2nd best player behind auba before injury. I do agree however that he is not the best at playing from the back. However, martinez didn’t always play from the back. I think arteta and leno need to talk about that as I feel that this will continue to cost us games jn the future. Lets mix it up and do some route 1 etc
First clean sheet up there since 2012 (Mannone)
Arteta don’t even need to explain anything. Any sane person would know that was the best outcome for all individual involved.
Only few days ago an ex player publicly said Leno isn’t top 4 GK material. I was baffled. Sometimes people talk as if the vocal chord connected to their brain is disconnected.
Being a pundit doesn’t mean you have to be dumb, as saying Leno isn’t top 4 material is dumb because other than Alison I’m struggling to see what goalkeeper Leno can’t stand toe to toe with.
Even Ederson is a poor shot stopper compared to Leno.
Also I hardly read fans talk bout the fact that Ederson was topping the list of errors that led to goals last season, but when the name is Leno. Everyone suddenly gets a boner and starts spewing trash
If Alisson or Ederson had to deal with the amount of shots on goal last season as Leno, they would have made more mistakes
Both of those are not that good when it comes to sustained pressure on the goal.
“Being a pundit doesn’t mean you have to be dumb”
Its in the job description.
Excuse me pls the only thing we nead is a good players who can do it y because we have all that we nead,so the question here is do they really train well or may b they are lazy
Leno is gud, Martinez’s better. I feel Arsenal didn’t convinced him enough 2 stay bcos of the money involved. We needed the money more than the player.
Rubbish, Martinez had 10 years to prove that he was consistently good, and he did not, only showing up when Leno got injured towards end of last season.
Leno is Mr Consistency, hardly has a bad game given his shambolic defenders. Gabriel and Holding and Saliba are the future in front of Leno ofcourse.
i thought we played well in both games against Liverpool save to say we tend to give them too much respect.
in the 3-1 defeat, had Lacazette scored that one on one chance at 2-1 with 20 minutes to go or less, we could have snatched a point.
last night Arsenal created 3 clean chances in the first 10 minutes, we deserved to be ahead. so yes, the team has improved and we can now compete with anyone. Bring on City!
It was 2 one-one’s chances Laca missed, that would have kil off the game
,@Godonga
Point of correction.
Martinez did not have ten years to prove himself. That is bad judgement from you. Does an academy player begin to start proving himself for first team? In EPL? Ah! Arsenal fan. It worries me how some of comments here show little memory of Arsenal we have.
Were there no Academy keeper, when le Prof had keepers injuries and he had to bring Jens out o retirement?
As has been quoted, Emiliano said there were 9 he met at the club both those he joined at the Academy and those in first team, among them are Wojney Szczney, Fabianski, having not got enough experience, Vito came to first team ahead of him, then more experience was needed, Ospina came in, then Petr came in. That was four full and experienced world cup keeper . Which club and which Coach would play Academy keeper ahead of those four, l am yet to think of such.
Now we have heard it from the horse’s mouth, can we please put this matter to rest.To do otherwise would be totally pointless.
One had to expect that Berndt Leno would take a while to get back to his best, following 2 months recovery from injury. Credit to him for an excellent performance against Liverpool in the Caribau Cup.
My only concern is that if Leno keeps this up it wont be long before Bayern Real and Barca start sniffing around him
And the good news is Arteta and Edu have a policy of “Not Selling Our Best Players”. That is why Lacazzette aint going nowhere nor is ANM.
I heard the interview and Arteta was frank. He liked both, knew Emi wanted to be a number One and took a pragmatic decision and the 20 million
Like Grandad has pointed out, the matter needs to be closed. Leno put in a great performance and judging by his post match interview is not short of self confidence which is essential for a gk.
Honestly,I’m really happy with the lads performance last night though I wasn’t expecting that,they tried and gave it back to the reds…That freaky penalty 🤣 of Maitland Niles was so sweet..was nervous though
When the goal keeper of a team keeps making saves after saves the whole 90mins of the game, it shows the overall weakness of the rest of the team really. When the rest of the team do their jobs well, the keeper is less relied upon to save the team’s blushes. If we don’t sort our midfield before the season ends by signing the likes of Partey or Soumare along side the likes of Aouar or Benrahma, we should forget top 4 this season again.
👍
With leno we need to show support he is our best goalkeeper. Having said that he is going to land us in trouble..! Unless he improves this two aspects, command the crosses and start communicating with his defense..! Look at corners conceded by ANM from his foul. That corner was unnecessary but only if he had alerts the defender. Again Monday a goal by jota. Had he told Luiz to let go of that ball he would have easily catch it. Avoided the goal. We still in the game.
Martinez is not more than average, 20 m.p. for this keeper is jackpot. When Tom Heaton is up and running he is likely to be number one for Villa