Arsenal: You asked, and Bernd Leno answered

Arsenal signed Bernd Leno to stabilize the situation in goal, and while some haven’t been convinced, may Manchester City be a shining example that everything is heading in the right direction.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I was sifting through criticisms directed at Bernd Leno for not being a “world class keeper” who could, essentially, single-handedly keep Arsenal in matches. The only viable point that I picked out of the criticism was that we had not yet seen a match where Leno was heavily called into action, and thus a match that he was a big part of.

That’s not entirely wrong. With how terrible the defense had been all year, Leno was often left stranded with not a hope in the world of keeping out shots on target because they were often unstoppable.

Going into Manchester City, Leno already had a shaky defense in front of him, at least on paper, and it was assumed that he would face the firing squad.

Which he did. All of that came true. But what also came true was a textbook definition of superior goalkeeping keeping a team in a match that could have gotten way out of hand.

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Leno made nine saves in the match, and rest assured, not all of them were dribblers or squibblers or dinked, mishit balls that a platypus could have stopped. These were tricky, deflected, spinning, venomous volleys on target, all of which Leno handled to near perfection, save for one spill that he did collect shortly thereafter.

It was exactly what the haters had been asking for – a performance from the new keeper that proved that he had the ability to keep us in matches that would otherwise get out of hand. This match could have ended five, even six to nil, but Leno was the only thing standing in the way of that.

I would like to remind everyone not to fall into the same trap as Wojciech Szczesny, criticizing a keeper for the sins of his defense. Szczesny was left high and dry countless times, and it reflected poorly on his abilities as a keeper, but now look at him. He’s anchoring arguably the best defense in the world, and has had all of his former potential restored to him and then some.

Leno is much the same. Give him a fighting chance, and he will take it. Give him a solid defense, and he is class enough to be the keeper we need.