Arsenal: It’s Bernd Leno time, baby!

Arsenal’s goal-keeping situation is more complicated now, but it should be in a good way. And now that Bernd Leno is here, we can find out.

Arsenal‘s goal-keeping situation last year was a well-noted nightmare. With a No. 10 that was making more defensive mistakes than he had his entire career and a No. 2 that was the keeping enigma of the century, there was no reprieve. It was just a bad situation to be in.

And, as the story goes, that’s why we got Bernd Leno. We got him so that he could bring stability to an unstable situation and he may be doing that. It’s hard to tell, because he hasn’t played. He hasn’t played a minute.

But it’s unavoidable now, baby! There is no hiding from the impending start that Bernd Leno has on his plate this Thursday in the Europa League opener against FC Vorskla. There is no way that Leno cannot not start. Meaning that it is the first, the very first, time that we will see Leno in actual competitive action.

I haven’t been this excited since Wojciech Szczesny took over for Manuel Almunia. And no, I’m not comparing Cech to Almunia (so no need to get militant), we just haven’t had cause to be excited about our keeper situation since, well, since Cech arrived, but the Leno solution looks far more long-term than that, and the potential is pretty much limitless.

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But we haven’t seen him! Not until Thursday, when we get our first taste of just how stable this situation really is. Because, judging by Cech’s mistakes alone, it’s not stable at all. But again, that’s a very limited pool of to choose from.

Leno should not face a lot of stress against Vorskla. I wouldn’t think so, anyway. The Gunners reserve team is pretty damn stoic in its own right, across the board. So I have to believe in what they’re going to be capable of doing.

And there may actually be nothing for Leno to do, though I’m sure that there will be something and all we can ask for him is to make the most of what he is given. Small as that may be. Because, in that, we can discern, or start to discern just how stable the situation really is, and if Leno is ready for a bigger role, the role that we all (or most of us) want for him.

In the end, it’s fricking Leno time! And I’m all jazzed up about i!