Much of the spotlight this summer has been about who would keep the number one spot for this season, and guest writer Shenel believes Arsenal’s decision was the wrong one.
There was such a contrast last night between Emiliano Martinez and Bernd Leno. For Leno it was another night and just another day at the office with multiple goals conceded. For Martinez it was another clean sheet!
Emi’s Villa side played Fulham and bagged all three points with a 3-0 win over the cottagers at Craven Cottage!
In contrast to his performance though, Leno was shaky, uncomfortable, and conceded three goals, following on from the goal he conceded against West Ham last week!
I have said before and I will say it again, but I definitely do not rate Leno, and I think the defence feels vulnerable with him in goal too! They lack confidence and it is clear to see they are uncomfortable with him behind them, unlike what they felt like when Martinez was in goal!
I do not know what Runarsson will bring but surely, he can’t be as bad as Leno!
I am not saying had Martinez been in goal in our past two games we wouldn’t have conceded, but something tells me he would have done his best to save the shots and goals.
That is something I feel cannot be said for Leno! I hardly see him catch, he always punches and that is bad enough!
Out of three games for Leno in the Premier League so far, he has conceded four goals and in two games for Emi he has conceded none despite having to deal with a penalty!
What a disappointment Leno is for me, the mistakes he makes is costing us games when normally it is the defence that is at fault, but I blame him for yesterday and for the previous goal conceded too! I know we need to back him, but I have seen enough to know he won’t change!
I really do not rate him, and I definitely don’t think he deserves to be number one at the club!
Some interesting claims from our guest writer Shenel on the man who was voted as second for the Player of the Year Award only this summer… Does anyone agree?
Patrick
As a big fan of Emi, but let us draw conclusions after Aston Villa’s performance against Pool at Anfield. Leno was never comfortable in the air nor his feet, but we have to live with it and hope he works it out in training. Runar is not here to take his spot, just as a back up, so let us not pin hopes on him. Although we have gone two steps backward with the departure of Emi, but we should ask ourselves, why were there so many shots on/off target in the first place? Monday’s squad was more of an Emery style which failed, but nothing to be ashamed of as we had the chance to score 2 or 3 more goals but our forwards had moments of brain drain. Lay to rest this Leno vs Emi debate as we cannot do anything at least till the next transfer window.
I totally agree with your
I cannot understand the strategy of playing out from the back. With Arsenal, it is an accident waiting to happen. Against Liverpool the only time Arsenal managed to get upfield was when David Luiz decided to kick the ball longer than 10 meters. All this sideways backward sideways play is making football boring
DId you not watch the end of last season when we did it consistently and scored several crucial goals that started with Emi passing out the back? Problem is that Leno is not good at it. Get a GK that is good at it and it becomes very useful for a quick transition.
The decision been made why pine over something that can’t change ,I know I won’t be .
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The goal we scored was as a result of playing out from the back
True Martinez dropped a shot only VAR to rule out the rebound as offside
Shenel
I could not have said it better my self.
Unfortunately I believe money talks and the offer villa made was to good to turn down but in the long run it could cost us
I felt Martinez gave us calmness and assurance at the back
At times I feel Leno brings us panick and disorder …
In all honesty, Emi needs more games as No1 to show whether a mistake was made.
What blew me away was how effortlessly he took command. I couldn’t believe it.
Leno needs time to get his rhythm back but I really don’t like the flapping at the back and playing out from the goal line is excruciating
I agree that Emi was a commanding influence and I’m just hoping that the gk coach can improve Leno sufficiently to stop my palpitations
I think saying Leno is not good enough for Arsenal is a bit over the top. He’s a good goalkeeper but in all honesty Martinez is a better one (fun fact, someone said Aston villa has not kept a clean sheet in their last 56 away games till Martinez came along). Could that be a coincidence.
I keep telling Eddie and others who said we made the right decision in sticking to Leno and selling Martinez that Martinez filled us more with confidence and we would be lying to ourselves (no matter how much we appreciate Leno for what he did before his injury), if we didn’t think Martinez was a better all round goalkeeper.
Yes he’s been at the club for 10 years and not broken into the starting 11,perhaps this was his time and he was about to be the best goalkeeper in the world but we sold him a little too early after 3 months of consistency and surety at the back.
we conceded less goals not because our defence improved (if our recent games are anything to go by) but largely due to the fact martinez was very vocal and coordinated the defence properly. For instance, the second goal, were bellerin went to join holding in the middle of the box to head out a salah cross, leaving space for Robertson to come in and score a goal, Martinez would probably have told bellerin to stay put rather than leave that space exposed. Maybe Leno saving alot last season was also due to the fact that he lacked proper coordination of the defence and was faced with alot of shots which he saved some, we thought that was the best we could see from a goalkeeper till Martinez came on and showed us he was even better than Leno at his best. Not since Lehman have we seen such goalkeeping surety.
We say there’s this and that which Leno has to improve at, but can we honestly point to one thing Martinez was not good at and needed to improve? That alone speaks volume about who we should have kept as our number 1.
We have no choice now than to support Leno. I hope he repays the faith Arteta and the fans place in him.
*27 away games, not 56
Twas 56..
Totally agree. I used to say this for a long time, saying Arsenal have sold Sczesney and Fabianski to buy worse goalkeeper. I still stand by my words
Let’s wait for Martinez to face proper opposition like Liverpool with villa and keep a clean sheet, date is 4/10/20 then we’ll have this conversation. We talk as if Martinez didn’t make mistakes when he played for us. I remembered him kicking the ball straight at a Liverpool player and it almost went in, also against Chelsea, he passed to the opponent just that this mistakes were not punished. The two teams Villa have played are the whipping boys for the season so let’s hold our judgement till end of season.
Although I do agree Martinez is very good , saying Leno is poor sounds like someone with short memory. Untill Leno got injured Last season , he saved us a thousand points and was on par to become our player of the season . I do agree he was unconfortable last 2 matches but for me its all About the defenders in front of him . Holding does not fit Artetas system of coming from the back , he was so shaky and that automatically puts our keeper in the same position.
Your judgement of Leno is flawed.He is a very good goalkeeper.If he was not, Arteta would never have sold Martinez.Apart from a lack of top quality midfielders,which excludes wing backs, our problems will not be solved if we persist with the defensive 3-4-3 set up.Where for example would Aouar fit into such a system?Can anybody out there enlighten me?
I think the goal is to play a 4-3-3, we’ve been playing a 3-4-3 because we’re leaking goals and still not creating as much as we’d like, so Arteta opted for stopping the goals leakage first before fixing goals creation as ozil wasn’t doing that as often as he’d like. I assume that’s the reason ozil was dropped to fit in that formation with 5 defenders. But he knows we definitely need a more consistent goals creator and a more solid midfielder to protect the back 4 and control the midfield as xhaka can’t do this. That’s why we’re linked with Aouar and Partey
Why y’all picking on Leno? The whole team has been relatively poor this season, allowing too much pressure on the defence. This is in stark contrast to how the team played with Emi towards the end of last season.
AMN suddenly doesn’t look like the same person y’all raved about. Tierney was poor against Salah. Willian was inconsequential and allowed Robertson clear on goal, but if it was Ozil, I can only imagine. Auba was nonexistent. Laca missed a glaring opportunity. Xhaka suddenly looked average once again. You’re not blaming Tierney for allowing Salah turn him easily for the first goal, but if it was Kola, y’all will be making an article about him.
This is not about a single player. The whole team needs to start playing better. Our “best EPL striker” has one goal while others are already on five and y’all not jumping on him. Playing from the back is probably the manager’s instructions, else he can just tell them to stop doing so.
I get. You prefer Emi, but ffs, the manager has made his decision. This constant moaning is complete trash.
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I share the same sentiments with Gooner P. Leno is not convincing.
Emi stamped his authority in few games he had while Leno was nursing the injury.
He deserved a fair chance not to be sold.
Leno made some good saves though even against Liverpool.
I have never liked leno since he joined arsenal,he wastes so much time with the ball whenever he tries to play out from the back&he doesn’t calculate well before going for crosses…the earlier arteta realises this&start making use of runnarson,the better for everyone
He’s a good keeper and I dont think he’s not good enough for Arsenal, he’s just not a top keeper. If you think only top keepers are good enough for us then your opinion I would agree with. Said it a few days ago that Leno got plaudits last season because the team played (poorly) to his strengths, which is a bunch of shots on target. He’s an excellent shot stopper. Every other area of his game is suspect tho. Not to mention he’s just short for a GK and doesn’t really make up for it enough. At 28 years old he’s not going to really get much better, is he? I think this is a position we’ll need to deal with in the next 2 seasons for sure. The guy cannot pass out the back quick enough like Arteta wants and is just as bad at commanding his box as Ospina was. Not a top GK.