With pre-season coming to an end with victory over Lazio, we’re taking a look back at how each player performed over the five matches.
Starting with goalkeepers and defenders, let’s take a look at how each individual is doing in their preparations for the new season. We’ll release a post on the midfielders and forwards at the same time tomorrow (Monday).
1Goalkeepers
Petr Cech 8
Cech has had a great pre-season overall, despite all the critics last season and the expectation he’d be out of the door by now. He kept a clean sheet in the first half against Boreham Wood, did the same again in the second half against Atletico, only conceding one pretty unstoppable goal against Chelsea.
The 36-year-old also saved a number of penalties in shoot-outs, and one in normal time against Chelsea. The only reason he doesn’t have an even higher rating is that he wasn’t particularly tested in those first two matches.
Bernd Leno 8
Unai Emery has a tough choice to make for the Manchester City match next weekend, because Leno performed just as well throughout pre-season. Like Cech, he conceded one goal to a near unstoppable header, against Atletico in his case.
He then kept a clean sheet in the first half against PSG, coming off at half-time, and then another in the full match against Lazio. Again, he’d be higher rated if he’d been tested a bit more in those games.
Early signs suggest his distribution from the back is also very effective, which is a bonus.
Emi Martinez 7
Martinez didn’t get quite as many minutes as the other two goalkeepers, playing one half against Boreham Wood and one half against PSG. The only goal he conceded was to a penalty, but otherwise he did pretty well. Most likely he’ll go into the season as the third choice goalkeeper, assuming David Ospina leaves this week.