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Bernd Leno ‘did nothing’ to threaten Petr Cech’s place in the Arsenal team, says Martin Keown

Less than impressed | Keown says Leno did ‘nothing for the whole night’: AFP/Getty Images/Ian Kington
Less than impressed | Keown says Leno did ‘nothing for the whole night’: AFP/Getty Images/Ian Kington

Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown says that Bernd Leno showed little to suggest that he can take Petr Cech’s place as the club’s No.1 goalkeeper.

The German, signed from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, was handed his first start by Unai Emery for Arsenal’s Europa League opener on Thursday night.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice as the Gunners beat Ukrainian side Vorskla 4-2 at Emirates Stadium.

Alex Iwobi laid the opener on a plate for Aubameyang in the first half and Danny Welbeck headed the second just after half-time.

Aubameyang then hit a fine longe-range effort and sub Mesut Ozil tapped home the fourth before goals from Volodymyr Chesnakov and Vyacheslav Sharpar made the scoreline more respectable for the visitors.

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But former Arsenal defender Martin Keown, working as a pundit on BT Sport, was less than impressed with the performance – especially from goalkeeper Leno.

In Pictures | Arsenal vs Vorskla

In Pictures | Arsenal vs Vorskla

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"I'm not sure anyone has done that tonight [shown they deserve to be in the first team]," said Keown on BT Sport.

"Certainly not the goalkeeper. You can't point blame at him for the goals, but if he pulled off a worldie save he might stay in the team.

"If he saved one of those goals you'd have to say he was quite brilliant. [If he] did nothing for the whole night but he pulled off two amazing saves, but he didn't do that."

Additional reporting fo the Press Association