Bernd Leno is capable of world-class saves, but the German is also one player who can serve up a few mistakes.
He succeeded in retaining the number one spot at Arsenal this season despite competition from Emi Martinez at the end of last season.
Mikel Arteta chose to side with Leno and sell the Argentinean to Aston Villa.
Martinez has been outshining Leno in the Premier League and against West Ham, the German showed yet again why Arsenal may have sold the wrong goalkeeper.
He was at fault for the Hammer’s second goal which looked too easy for him not to have saved it.
Jarrod Bowen’s second goal for his side should be easy to save for any goalkeeper at Premier League level.
However, Leno allowed the ball to squirm underneath him and into the Arsenal net.
He must be the most relieved man in the team after the Gunners managed to salvage a draw from the game, but Karen Carney said he should be saving that goal and had a shocker there.
She said on BBC Radio 5 Live: “It’s not even a good finish. Leno has had a shocker. Arsenal have completely switched off. There were so many mistakes leading up to it. It’s just embarrassing.”
I don’t care what anyone here thinks and I’m going to say it once more that Martinez is a better GK than Leno. Some of you only watch the EPL. We knew of Leno when he was at Bayer. We have a set of fanbase who have let mediocirty creep into their minds. We have become fanboys of players instead of being real fans. Not long ago it left a bad taste in the mouth of many that Martinez had displaced Leno. Going from the eye test Martinez has been the best keeper in the league this season and its no wonder that Villa have had many clean sheets and their defense has improved. Leno’s shot stopping since his Bayer days has always been world class and thats where it ends for him. You can debate it all you want but the truth hurts. Same way Messi has always been better than Ronaldo but people will still debate the obvious. Stop being fanboys of players and accept the hard truth where due and stop arguing quality into players because you cant.
You need to watch the highlights of the Tottenham AV game.
That don’t really matter to me because his been solid all season. Villa do not deserve him.
Its true he is poor comunicator it his zone he should clearly the intention of liggard but he was quite what is that , and being beaten at the very post you are protecting shows how poor you are as goal keeper.
Common Kev this is just your opinion and stop making it like some gospel truth. Martinez has conceded 30 goals this season against Leno 31 with a game in hand despite he plays in a better structured team. If Martinez is in our goal and with the way we play nobody knows if he will fair better. The fact he was there when we bought Cech at 25 and bought Leno at 27 shows he was not trusted. Can I also call you Martinez fanboy because he doesn’t matter to you that he has had several holler performance this season with the latest against spurs as Rfrancis pointed out.. The goal you are referring to shouldn’t have be counted anyway because I have seen such disallowed this season and I have seen a free kick retaken because ref has not blown for it to be taken.
On the contrary, other fans could argue that Leno was simply distracted and lost his concentration shouting instructions for someone to stand over the ball. This was a basic coaching error – failure to stand over the ball when a foul is committed in your half. Carney should know better. She knows the game.
Arsenal needs another goalie. Leno is not good enough period.
The argument over Leno vs Martinez is a waste of time and energy, since Martinez is no longer an Arsenal player.
Mat Ryan is an experienced EPL goal keeper and full international. There is no reason why Arteta shouldn’t give Bernd Leno a rest and trust Mat Ryan in the next match on the basis of Leno’s recent performances.
I would agree with the underlying intent of your message OG, in that no matter how much we debate this situation, we can’t rollback time and reverse the transferring of our former Keeper…that said, I think the reason why it still has some pertinence in the now, is that our present manager has put himself squarely under the microscope, due to his mixed results, which means all of his decisions are up for debate, as they represent a tangible means by which one can evaluate his time here at the club…as I think you know, I believe this decision was one of his early days missteps, much like the misguided Willian decision, but I also think good decisions were made subsequent to these which should ultimately help the club moving forward
Agree, MA did a mistake but must see under what circumstances, Emi demanded to to be No1 but MA works on merit, not demands. Moving Emi was a good decision or else there could be more problems then solutions. No doubt, Emi was the better keeper at that moment (forget his past 10 years, etc) but demanding No1 was not right and rightly MA moved him. We now have Matt who is a solid GK, next few games MA should try him out. We missed 2 points today due to Leno and how many more we lost, I have lost the count. Bench him or bin him,bring on Matt.
I think that is a great comment Ozzie. I liked Emi more and he was counted home grown but attitude wise, you cannot promise anyone a guranteed spot and probably there was no good offers for Leno or Arteta was simply wrong, it does not matter now.
What matters, should we give Matt a shot even that he is on loan. At the end of the loan he will have one year left in his Brighton contract. I would have used him in Europa, he is trust worthy for me. And it would have encouraged him to join us if we plan to buy him though it could lead brighton to ask for higher fee.
Agreed Ozzie! Realists argue about things that have relevance and can be possibly be altered.
NO realist believes for a single moment that MARTINEZ will be returning and so, as you correctly say , the discussion on which is the better keeper is merely academic and of no interest to REALISTS.
There is so much to discuss on the here and now and the near future to WASTE valuable time in point scoring about what might(or might not) have been.
REALITY ALWAYS FOR ME!
did you see martinez error in Tottenhams first goal
Leno is perfectly fine for a mid-table team. He is Arsenal’s Simon Mignolet. Good enough to do the job, not good enough to play top four football, which is fine, because the Gunners won’t be against next season unless they win the Europa League.
It is funny (peculiar, not haha) that Fabianski, Martinez, Szczesney, and Ospina; all four former Arsenal keepers active in top leagues, have arguably outperformed the guy who has the goalkeeper position locked down in North London. Leno is making me nostalgic for Vito Mannone (kidding… sort of).
People seem to have quickly forgotten that Leno has probably been our most consistent performer since his arrival, second only to Auba. He was constantly bailing us out under Emery.
It’s fair argument, should we have sold Martinez? One of them had to go, and it would have been extremely harsh on Leno, given his performances up until the summer.
Personally, I still rate him, and that was just more of a one off shocker that all keepers do now and again. Let’s not forgot that even the best like Alisson, can make many many big mistakes.
Spot on, TM 👍 Unfortunately there are a lot of short memories around here!
And few still nursing their Martinez boners
Mind you it’s always the same 6 fans who comment and how they are goalkeeping experts and how they saw Martinez’s skills 10 years ago but keep quiet .🤔
I don’t think it would have been harsh on Leno – you could see where he had some deficiencies and where Martinez was better. It’s harsh to think that Leno could have walked back into the team after Martinez has done so well.
HOWEVER I’ve been done with this argument for a while now. Leno is not a problem, he’s been excellent this season and even improved in some of his weaknesses (notably in crosses and even with the ball at his feet, although some would disagree on the latter point). Everyone makes mistakes (even Martinez), so, while it’s fair to point them out, let’s not go overboard in our criticism of one of the better players we have and try to move on from the comparisons.
I rate Leno and people who keep bringing up Martinez need to look at a few of the shockers he has had this season too. But, in my opinion Leno’s main fault is he gets caught flat footed on his goal line and does not come out and command his area. He needs to be more accretive and come for crosses more. It also worries me though when we are in the opposition half and he is 30 yards out from his goal. He will get caught out one day!
I was a big fan of Martinez at the time and I was wringing my hands when Leno got injured but EM filled his shoes superbly. I wanted him to stay as part of the squad but there is no point wishing for things that haven’t happened or won’t happen. Leno isn’t a bad keeper and EM and Arsenal have moved on
Leno is going through a bad patch which happens to most keepers during the season.This has had an adverse effect on his defence as evidenced by the number of soft goals we have shipped recently.Without being outstanding, I think Ryan is a very decent keeper who should be given a chance to earn his money where it matters.In any event ,we do need reliable back up for Leno and Tierney who must be close to being in the “red” zone..
We sold the wrong keeper and bought in ruarson to comppund the stupid decision. Dont try and defend it!
Leno is fairy good , cos there are no more talents like oblack, but his major weakness is to play the ball , he is totally failing to play from the back secondly , has no game reading, he does not make assists, I mean today’s goalkeepers are creative, game readers to c the point of weakness from the opponent, he is just domant
Arsenals need to sharpen up Martinelli ti take over from Auba. The front line needs a sharp shooting speedy forward.
Auba is loosing his “magic boots.” The youngsters are a delight to watch while the back line needs to be alive at the beginning of duels. Opponents are aware Arsenals do “sleep” when matches begin so they take advantage. Arteta is getting the team where it needs to be and we love him.
Even though everyone has moved on, but these things keep coming back. to admit, Emi for his form later after Arsenal has bared with him for a long time, remember we have to send him on loan many times. Wenger being a good youth developer gave him lot of time to improve but that was not working until later at that age. he (Emi) should have given the team one chance as a pay bay.