Is Bernd Leno getting a taste of how Emi Martinez was feeling? (opinion)

Bernd Leno and Emi Martinez were once in competition for the first-team role at Arsenal, with the German largely winning the right to feature.

Now the boot is on the other foot, Leno must know how Martinez used to feel after seemingly being demoted to the bench.

After coming in and smashing it in goal recently Aaron Ramsdale has given the former Bayer Leverkusen shot-stopper a taste of his own medicine it seems.

The German keeper is now forced to sit on the sidelines and watch Ramsdale do well in between the sticks. Just like he used to make Emi do when he seemed to be number one at the club.

The difference was though, Leno wasn’t doing well and no matter how bad Leno played he didn’t get dropped. But now he has played badly and Ramsdale has come in and hopefully is here to stay, barring any poor runs of form.

The first games of the season, we all know we were poor. We lost all three whilst conceding nine goals and scoring none. For all three of those games Leno was in goal, had it have been Ramsdale we may not have conceded as many but we will never know.

Ramsdale then gets his chance to come in and keeps two clean sheets in his two Premier League outings.

It could be a coincidence with players standing up and taking note, and talking about what needs to change after the demolition by Manchester City, or call it a change in goalkeeper and the defence feeling more confident, but the return to keeping clean sheets has most definitely been a huge boost to our form.

What we do know is that Ramsdale has come in and there has been a major shift in confidence and performance.

If he gets injured we will be stuck with Leno and I just hope he has watched and learned and is ready to show Arteta that he too can perform well in goal. I am sure Leno would not want to go down the same route as Martinez did, where he was benched every game apart from the in the FA Cup and where he had to watch on knowing he could do better!

I believe Leno has potential and as yet he hasn’t showed it. But I hope that if he does get the chance that he proves he can be just as good as Ramsdale so that we can say we have two strong forces for that position.

Who knows maybe now Leno has got a taste of his own medicine he will step up to the plate.

Like I have always said, it doesn’t matter if we concede as long as we take away the three points at the end of the day, just like we did against Spurs. Gooners?

Shenel Osman

@sh3n3l_