Arsenal lost 3-0 to Manchester City on their return to Premier League football last night but it could have been a lot worse if not for the heroics of Bernd Leno.
The Gunners had a grip on the game until two costly mistakes from David Luiz changed the course of the game.
As embarrassing as the scoreline may sound to someone who didn’t watch the game, it really could have been worse if Arsenal didn’t have Leno in goal.
The club posted a clip of the German’s saves in that game after the match and it was obvious to see that if he wasn’t in our goal, we would have conceded even more goals.
Goalkeepers rarely earn praise for their contributions to their team if they don’t keep clean sheets and that has probably taken some praise off Leno too.
The German has not been fortunate enough to have good defenders in front of him for much of this season as Arsenal struggles to get the best out of their defenders. However, he has still kept seven clean sheets in the Premier League.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang understandably gets most of the attention as goals win games and the Gabon star scores most of them for the Gunners.
However, without Leno between the sticks, I think that Aubameyang’s goals would have counted for less because our poor defence would have given us a serious negative goal difference.
Leno won’t be leaving us soon, but I think the German has done enough to deserve a better defence in front of him and more recognition for his efforts.