Despite splashing out on Bernd Leno this summer, Arsenal boss Unai Emery is reportedly set to keep faith in Petr Cech for the second game in a row.
As per the Evening Standard, the Gunners spent £22m to bring Leno to the Emirates this summer from Bayer Leverkusen, but the German shot-stopper was on the bench for the loss to Man City on Sunday.
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Emery instead opted to keep faith in stalwart Cech, who aside from conceding twice, almost had a calamitous moment of scoring an own goal after badly slicing a pass just beyond his own post.
Despite that though, the Daily Star report that Emery will continue with Cech between the posts given the magnitude of the game, and while on one hand it’s perhaps a sensible tactic to use the experience of the Premier League veteran, it arguably doesn’t send a great message to Leno in terms of the confidence his coach has in him.
Further, with Cech struggling badly with trying to play out from the back which drew some unnecessary sarcastic taunts from the Arsenal faithful on Sunday, it remains to be seen as to whether the Gunners are simply asking for trouble as Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea will have seen that and will undoubtedly look to expose the obvious flaw.
Time will tell how long Leno is forced to sit on the sidelines, but Emery would surely be well advised to avoid sitting his summer signing on the bench for too long as he’ll be itching to get settled into the line-up and make his mark after his big summer move to north London.
Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in the Saturday evening kick-off game this weekend.