“We can surprise Man City,” says Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno
Bernd Leno signed for Arsenal from Bayer Leverkusen in 2018. He initially competed with Petr Cech for a place in the team but soon established himself as the club’s first choice goalkeeper.
Leno has been one of Arsenal’s best performers over the past two seasons and has become a fan favourite. The German shot stopper recently did an interview with Sky Sports where he talked about the need for players at Arsenal Football club to show support for equality of all races and creeds. He discussed the impact they could have as role models and the responsibility they have to make use of their platform.
“”We as players have so many people looking up to us as idols. We have to show, as Arsenal, that we support you. It doesn’t matter if you are black or white, or what your religion is.”
“It is sad in 2020 we are still discussing these things, but this is the reality and we have to keep pushing on this. It doesn’t matter if you are black or white, we have to respect each other and everybody should have the same chances in life.”
Leno then proceeded to talk about the return of the Premier League.
“Everyone is getting more excited about the season beginning. I’m looking forward and probably everybody in the world is looking forward that Premier League football is going back at least to something like normal.”
“Everything will be new at the beginning with the match-day protocols. But it was the same with training and you get used to it. And we’re all glad we can do what we love and play football again. I’m sure that everything will go in a good way and that everything will go smoothly like in Germany. We as players have a good feeling that everything is safe.”
Arsenal’s opening game is against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on June 17th. If they were to win that game, they would be two points behind fifth placed Manchester United and five points behind fourth placed Chelsea with 9 games to go.
Leno sounded confident about adapting to the game without fans and optimistic about the game against Manchester City.
“We are prepared for the situation without the fans, we have worked during the break on our mindset and our leadership.”
“We can surprise City because nobody has the rhythm. I’m sure we can have a good start. Mikel (Arteta) knows every player and he knows the manager better than anyone. I think Mikel will have a good game-plan and at this level we think we are a very good team.”
