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It would have been easy for Bernd Leno to check out at this point. Up until Saturday lunchtime the German keeper had not started a game for Arsenal in the Premier League since August, and as a result was omitted from Hansi Flick's most recent national team squad. Regardless though, he was ready.

It's easy to forget just how important a player Leno was for the Gunners. As recently as the 2019/20 campaign he was a player of the season contender, and arguably kept Unai Emery in his job. When forced to make a decision between him and his counterpart in the opposite goal at Villa Park Emi Martinez, it was ultimately the former Bayer Leverkusen man who Mikel Arteta allowed to stay at the club.

And yet there are flaws to his game. Not exactly catastrophic ones, but ones that became blindingly obvious when Aaron Ramsdale was brought in to the squad. The 30-year-old is a conservative passer, whose preference is generally to stay on his line rather than look to sweep high up the pitch. He is also a quieter character than Ramsdale, which again is not necessarily a bad thing, but when you consider the charisma the England keeper has brought to the Gunners back line the difference was stark.

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