Although Arsenal have just spent a massive amount on bringing Bernd Leno over from Bayer Leverkusen this week, I can assure you that for the next 12 months he will be learning the ropes from Petr Cech and the new keeper coach Javi Garcia from PSG.
It has been widely reported that Leno was not picked for the German national team because he seems to have suffered a crisis of confidence in the last campaign, and although we all hope that he can benefit from the change of scenery we will only be seeing him in action in the Europa League and the League Cup while Cech plays out the final year of his contract with the Gunners with the Number One jersey on his back for the first and last time..
This has now been further confirmed by Unai Emery when he gave out his list of Arsenal captains in yesterday’s pre-game conference. After Koscielny, Cech was the first on his list! He said: “After Laurent, our other captains are Petr Cech, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka.
“I want leaders in the team, every player at every time to have the capacity to show leadership, but these are the five players who have a possibility to be the captain.”
“I want leaders In The Team” he said. Is that not evidence enough that Cech will be starting tomorrow against Man City? I would add that the big man was definitely in brilliant form in the pre-season games and looks determined to fight for his place. So as some readers have been saying that they were worried about Leno coming in, they can breathe easier knowing that he will be learning and hopefully improving drastically in the coming year….
Admin
I was expecting that.
Leno will hopefully keep Cech on his toes
Hopefully Torreira and Guendouzi will help our defence.
I hope Lichtsteiner starts tomorrow
The only areas I’m worried about are CBs and LB
Enjoyed MOTD first of the season
I’m both excited and nervous about tomorrow
Excited for the start of a new era
Nervous because we are playing the PL champions with both our LB injured and uncertainty with CB
Anyway hope we do great
COYG
Hopefully what Emery has done is great a competitive competition between Cech and Leno that will mean the in-form keeper plays in the Premiership and the other will start the cup matches.Wenger had Ospina as second choice to Cech and no matter what his form was Cech was always considered No1.You would hope that the competitive edge between the two will bring out the best in them both.I personally believe Cech has earned the right to start against Citeh.But mistakes this year will cost him his place in the side.This is a far better philosophy to have.
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I don’t think that Arsenal bought Leno for 22 Million ₤ for him to sit on the bench. I think he will be starting before halfway through the season
Leno is good on the ball, almost too mobile. That is how to make a back three into a possession type back four with Leno, before the ball is passed to the mid-field, say to Guendouzi.
………..…..….…….Leno…….………………… {With a keeper who is mobile able on the ball, the back
……….Litch……Sokratis……Mustafi….…… three get more active support.}
Ramsay…Guendouzi..Torerria….Welbeck {Guendouzi can play from the deep box to box. Links
………..……………Ozil…………………………. with Ozil, or can also pass longer as he is accurate.}
…..…….Aubameyang….Lacazette………. {Links with Ozil or can get fed by the mid-field.}
So Xhaka and Mkhitaryan are not in your strongest team?
Hi Martin, this is going to be high speed combat if we are to win, so the mid-field needs to harry the enemy and those four–Ramsay, Guendouzi, Torerria and of course Welbeck, are good for it.
Xhaka is too slow… Mkhi is not a chaser, but plays further up the field.
Welbeck works harder than most on the team and has the speed to help Mustafi, while Ramay has speed, but needs to help more. Both Ramsay and Welbeck can score, so the goals could come from any kind of attack.
I think Ramsay holds the key to a great performance.
It is not so much the strongest team, rather what type of team that City are vulnerable to and be that team. City (Pep) cannot handle speed and toughness in a package compared to other situations.
Against, say Burnley, I would use Xhaka.
Mkhi can come in for Ozil if the latter is not effective enough.
This a crucial game, as it is at home, and we need to defeat City somehow.
………..…..….…….Leno…….…………………
……….Litch……Sokratis……Mustafi….……
Ramsay…Guendouzi..Torerria….Welbeck
………..……………Ozil………………………….
…..…….Aubameyang….Lacazette……….
I can’t figure out why, but I like your team selection 🙂
Arsenal are not a club that spends a fair amount on a single player, to then bench him. You’ll see this happen a lot at the likes of PSG, Barca, Real, etc, but a smaller club with limited finances like Arsenal.
I have to say that I am stunned that so many Arsenal fans don’t mind Cech continuing as our number one. In regards to thoughts on Wenger, and now with Cech, it seems many fans are still having their memories wiped during the summer months. Cech has been very poor for us, he’s not going to become a top quality keeper again given his age, and even if he is showing signs of improvement, and actually does not deserve to stay as number one for now. Someone else deserves a chance.
If Leno starts, and has a very poor 2/3 months, then by all means give Cech another chance. But we have to start Leno against City, because it’ll be very damaging to his confidence if his new manager doesn’t trust him in a big game.
As fans, we wanted change, we’ve been given change, and yet some still revert back to type. Cech, and Bellerin must start! Give Ramsey a new contract! Ozil must play in the big games! I just don’t get what is happening to peoples memories.
Maybe it is the realisation that our coaching has changed, Cech preseason form was admirable and he looked hungry for for the starting spot, just look at how different he is with penalties already…
He made such an agile save that if it was Leno then people would be raving about how he was such a bargain, no belittling of Leno here but to point out that some people are looking on the team as a whole bunch of new prospects.
New coaching, new expectations, let the new manager choose the team by what he thinks and try supporting the team no matter who starts. We have the luxury of allowing Leno to adapt and fight for his spot, when Emery thinks he is best then I assume he will pick him.
Problem is if Leno sits on the bench for the next 6 months it will be decided straight away he is not good enough just like Lucas Perez, and shipped out for loan next season and eventually for sale for probably £6M or less. Chelsea bought Kepa Arizabalaga 3 days ago and he went straight into the first team and played the first premier league game. Why are we debating whether Leno should start or not. Leno was bought because Cech with his shenanigans at the back cost us silly goals last season. So it’s either we are admitting Leno is not better than Cech and was a bad buy or Emery doesn’t want to step on some toes and hurt Cech’s feelings. In fact, Emery’s initial decesion to keep the injured Koscielny as captain and name 5 vice captains instead reeks of indecisiveness and cowardice to me. We are going to play this game yet again, where it is not clear who is in charge or who is responsible for motivating and directing the team on the pitch? If the captain position is so useless as to have an injured player being captain then scrape it off and we can start the season with nobody being captain or with everybody being a captain of themselves.
Welbeck on left back! So crazy it could actually work.
I believe Welbeck can be a very good wing back like Moses, but on the right side
But I think Emery wouldn’t use a three CB formation, otherwise he would have kept Chambers
A good three CB formation could hit Man City with counterattacks, but not 3-4-2-1 because it needs good wingers behind the striker
Welbeck is great going forwards but Moses is a better dribbler and I wonder how accurate a Welbeck cross is??
Welbeck could surprise the opponents with his runs if he is deployed as a right wing back
I believe his crosses would be perfect, because he has been playing as a striker, thus he knows what kind of crosses a striker need (depending on the situations) very well
According to stats,Cech is the most error prone in the epl,if not among the top 6 teams.He has saved fewer spotkicks compared to others. Admittedly he is atop goalie but his peak is over and Arsenal have to be realistic.
As for MC,its not a given they would run away with the epl again.If that were the case the other teams may as well pack up.For Arsenal I hope they will show the defence will have improved compared to last season when they conceded 9 goals against the blues.
Emry aint afraid to win ugly compared to the fm.Hopefully he will park the bus.
Its like fighting against a gangster. Inan open confrontation you are bound to get hammered.Why not hit below the belt ie play rough etc like other teams do against Arsenal in the past.Get tough/rough on the danger men off MC and we shall see.
RM did that that to Salah and they won.
fans appeared to be disappointed that they dont have a 80m gk to play in goal
Emery says Welbz could be at left back after playing there in training yesterday and the team trained on the Emirates pitch for the first time before a game. Today will be interesting.
This is getting very exciting. I love Emery, the guy is open to new ideas. #innovative