Arsenal: Bernd Leno comes down to putting all the pieces together

Arsenal haven’t needed a keeper this bad since Manuel Almunia was in the posts. Thankfully, Bernd Leno is prepared to pick up the pieces.

Arsenal’s keeper situation has to rank pretty high on the pertinence charts. You could probably tell by the links to the club. Bernd Leno and Timo Horn are both being floated about as potential solutions to a failing keeper system in North London.

It’s not that Petr Cech was the worst keeper in the world last year. He wasn’t Manuel Almunia, I should say, although I would argue that the need hasn’t been as pressing since the latter was between the Arsenal posts.

The scary thing was that Cech made personal, mental mistakes that we are in no way used to seeing him make. Ever. He is as mentally sound as they come and he made some boneheaded gaffs. Which is what contributes to the ‘he’s over the hill’ argument.

As a deputy, I don’t think you could do any better than Cech. But we need a new No. 1. Which means that the latest out of the Bernd Leno camp is fantastic news. Bayer Leverkusen have nabbed surprise goal keeper of the year Lukas Hradecky, who helped Entracht Frankfurt to a fantastic defensive season.

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Signing a clear cut No. 1 keeper is usually a good sign that your previous keeper – in this case Bernd Leno – is on the way out. Which pushes him one step closer to joining up with the Emery era and catching Arsenal fans’ goalkeeping anxieties like Lev Yashin.

Leno isn’t Jan Oblak. He isn’t David de Gea. But a little change of scenery can often work wonders, and in the past, Leno has been someone that the entire hopes of post-Neuer Germany has looked at like a dinner table waiting on their desert.

That was because of his 2015/16 form. In that fantastic year, Leno was making a superb 2.02 saves per goal and surrendering just 1.15 per 90. That is when the future was the brightest. But it dimmed after that, and has worsened in each sequential year. But the one thing that has improved each year is errors leading to goals.

Still not convinced? You don’t have to be. Leno has the world to prove and we have seen what changing clubs can do to a guy. It’s invigorating, it brings about their best. Leno, if he can combine his best individualized form from different years, would be far better than what we have now.

Next: 3 Things Learned From Emery, Arteta Switch

It’s no guarantee, but then again, what is?

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