The German goalkeeper spent his first season with Arsenal battling for the number one spot with the recently retired Petr Cech. However, Bernd Leno wants to be the number one goalkeeper in all competitions for Unai Emery’s side for the upcoming season.
Leno was second choice behind Cech when he first arrived at the Emirates, but quickly became Emery's number one, and went on to make 32 Premier League appearances in his debut season following his £19m move from Bayer Leverkusen last summer.
The 27-year-old managed six clean sheets in the league, but only featured four times in other competitions. As Cech has now retired and departed the club, Leno is staking his claim to be Arsenal’s main man for every competition going into next season, according to the Evening Standard.
After a few shaky performances at the start of his Arsenal career, Leno really proved his worth at the back end of the season, putting in some stellar performances. Most notably his performance away at Wembley in the North London derby against rivals Tottenham.
Becoming the undisputed number one will surely help the German keeper to deliver more consistent performances the likes of which we saw glimpses of throughout last season.
Going into next season, it is looking like that the academy graduate Emiliano Martinez will be promoted to Arsenal’s number two goalkeeper. The 26-year-old was on loan with Reading last season and featured in 18 games.
Arsenal are still hesitant to look for another keeper, one with more experience to challenge Leno next season. However, with the club’s low transfer budget, they will most likely look to prioritise other areas to strengthen with the likes of Shkodran Mustafi, Lucas Torreira and Mesut Ozil rumoured to be leaving.
With Leno laying down the gauntlet to Emery, we could see the former Bayer Leverkusen man get his wish as Arsenal are unlikely to spend big on another keeper.
Source :
90min
