Interview

Leno - The gap to Man City has got smaller

Leno

It says a lot about our progress under Mikel Arteta that Saturday's game at Manchester City will be remembered more for saves by Ederson than Bernd Leno.

Our goalkeeper wasn't called upon too much at the Etihad but, ultimately, he finished on the losing side after Raheem Sterling's first-half winner.

Here's Bernd's take on our 1-0 defeat:

on the result…

I think on one hand we’re disappointed, but on the other we played a good game and we competed against City and at the end you can see that the gap was very small.

on whether the game was a real tactical battle in the opening exchanges…

I think you’re right, it was very tactical with a lot of passes and it was very interesting for people who are interested in tactics. At the end you could see that everybody wanted to win the game and then it doesn’t matter how, whether it’s from tactics or set-pieces, and unfortunately we lost the game.

on whether all our performance was missing is a golden chance…

Yeah, I think we missed a little bit of the lucky punch. We tried at the end with set-pieces and crosses, but like you said, we couldn’t finish the action. It was our only main problem in the end because I think we were better in the game in the second half and we controlled the game, but maybe a good chance was missing.

on coming to the Etihad and delivering such a competitive performance…

I think when you compare the first game after the lockdown how we played here and lost 3-0 without any chances and how we played today, there’s a big, big difference. We are on the right way and today we lost this game, but next week we have to win and be confident in our play like this.

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