Arsenal: There’s a problem if Bernd Leno doesn’t win

Unai Emery has stated that he wants to see all the goalkeepers this summer before picking his number one. That’s perfectly fine, but there is an issue if Bernd Leno doesn’t win.

Unai Emery has started his preseason plans. Two weeks into his training sessions with his first preseason friendly played on Saturday against Boreham Wood, the Spaniard’s ideas are starting to form, in his mind, within the players, and on the training pitch. And there are many positions that he must decipher in the Arsenal team.

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Alexandre Lacazette or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at the centre-forward position. Nacho Monreal or Sead Kolasinac at left-back. The myriad of midfielders that pose several problems and potential solutions. And another that Emery is questioning at this time is the goalkeeping position.

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Speaking in his press conference prior to Saturday’s match against Boreham Wood, Emery posited the prospect of having his goalkeepers battle it out for the starting role:

"“I want to work with Petr Cech, with Bernd Leno, with Emiliano Martinez, with Matt Macey, with Ospina,” he said. “It’s clear that we have [a lot] of goalkeepers but we want to work in the future with three goalkeepers in the first team. Now, I want to look, I want to work every day with all the goalkeepers and then I am going to decide for [who is No 1].”"

It is an interesting prospect that Emery proposes. Most, myself included, presumed that Bernd Leno, when he was acquired for approximately £20 million earlier in the summer, would be the automatic number one. However, perhaps it might not quite play out as well all anticipated.

But if Emery does host a competition for each of his goalkeepers for the starting role, it would be concerning if Leno fails to win it. Petr Cech is a perfectly good goalkeeper, but £20 million was not invested on an individual to simply sit behind a 36-year-old making more mistakes than ever before.

I do not necessarily believe that Leno is better than Cech. He certainly has the talent to be, but the frequency and extent of his errors are concerning and have not been ironed out since his younger years. But what is crucial is that Arsenal do believe that Leno is better than Cech. They wouldn’t have signed him if they didn’t.

Consequently, for Sven Mislintat and Ivan Gazidis, the likely engineers behind the acquisition, it would be extremely troubling if Emery then concluded that their investment was not an improvement on the resources already available to him.

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It remains to be seen whether Emery will side with Cech or Leno. But Mislintat and co. will be hoping that the new shiny toy is the one that wins. It is a problem if he doesn’t.