Leno 1-0 Me by Shenel Osman
Being subjected to criticism from many fans, myself included, Bernd Leno managed to keep a clean sheet on his first appearance in the Premier League, since his injury in that first game back after lockdown against Manchester City in July.
I will always admit if I am wrong, but I cannot claim he will be consistent throughout the season based on one game, against a Fulham side who very rarely tested him.
After that miscommunication between Leno and Gabriel in the first half I did think, “oh here we go” but he slowly grew into the game and produced a couple of saves, which let’s be honest wasn’t going to really trouble him.
It can only be good for his confidence to have a performance like this and keep a clean sheet as well, but it begs to be seen that against opposition with a few more lethal players, whether he will be able to pull out saves and even keep a clean sheet. He is a quality player but it could be said that during the season before lockdown he was number one because he never really had any competition, and he always thought he would get in the team and so he did. Things had changed after he got injured and Martinez came in, but now it seems that Martinez is on his way out and Leno will go back to being number one week in week out.
Losing Martinez and not really having an experienced back-up if Leno does get injured or sent off would not be the best of moves from Arsenal, but if they cannot guarantee first team games for Martinez then I don’t blame him if he wants to leave. If he does though and we get no replacement then the back up to Leno would be the rather inexperienced Matt Macey. At least with Martinez I was aware myself of his performances after seeing him in cup games and knew what he was capable of, but I am not very sure or confident when it comes to Macey as I haven’t seen him too much.
I wish Leno the best of luck for this season and I hope he does prove me wrong, but I would also love to see Martinez stay and fight for that competition. Gooners?
Shenel
