Arsenal already have two defensive signings already on the way in Sokratis and Stephan Lichtsteiner.

Set-up

With an Aaron Ramsey extension looking more and more likely, and the club being sorted in attack, a goalkeeper seems the most important signing.

Petr Cech is 35 years old and David Ospina is widely believed to be leaving the club this summer.

For some reason, Wojciech Szczesny was deemed good enough to be Gigi Buffon’s successor at Juventus but not good enough for Arsenal.

Arsenal need a long-term solution at goalkeeper.

The ideal player would be Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak, but given the reported budget restrictions this summer, that move is unlikely.

The best goalkeeper on the market would be Roma and Brazil’s Alisson, but there has been much more smoke about him moving to Liverpool and almost none about Arsenal. This doesn’t rule anything out; there was no hint of Unai Emery being named manager until David Ornstein dropped that bombshell and he was announced right after.

But there are more than suitable candidates that have emerged. Let’s look at them all…

Bernd Leno

Bernd Leno is the 26-year-old German keeper for Bayer Leverkusen.

He has won six caps for the German national team—which, given their depth at keeper at the moment, is nothing to shake a stick at.

He is still on the younger side for a keeper at 26, with his prime still ahead of him.

He was (at the time) the youngest goalkeeper to ever play in the Champions League when he made his debut against Chelsea in 2011 at the age of 19.

Bayer Leverkusen have had a wide-open style of play in the past, which makes his career goalkeeping statistics look worse than they should be.

This season, he kept 10 clean sheets in 33 Bundesliga appearances. His 40 goals allowed is the third best among Bundesliga goalkeepers with at least 30 appearances.

Squawka awarded him keeper of the week nine times this past season. Arsenal fans would be delighted to have that happen just once.

With a reported £22 million release clause, Leno is well within Arsenal’s budget and would be a suitable long-term successor to Petr Cech.

Here is an incredible save he made from a one-on-one situation this season against Schalke, just for good measure:

Jack Butland

Jack Butland is also a name that has been floated as a potential transfer.

The promising 25-year-old English keeper will likely want to stay in the top flight, leaving the relegated Stoke City.

Stoke City were terrible in every position on the pitch this season, and, at times, Butland shined above their manure pile.

Fans would be right to be wary of this transfer, however.

Jordan Pickford was in a similar situation last season. Playing for Sunderland, who were eventually relegated, he faced an enormous amount of shots. When a team is awful, sometimes the keeper does not get blamed for the goals and fans only see the saves they make.

Arsenal were tipped with a move for Pickford last summer, but he ended up going to Everton and this season was not his best at club level.

He gave up 58 goals, behind only Asmir Begovic and Jack Butland himself.

It is interesting to note that two of England’s goalkeepers at the World Cup gave up the most and third most goals in the Premier League.

Butland is no doubt a promising young goalkeeper, and the defence in front of him was truly dreadful, but it feels like a bit of a gamble to make the keeper, who gave up the most goals in the league, Arsenal’s present and future shot stopper.

Jasper Cillessen

Jasper Cillessen is another keeper that has been linked with the Gunners.

The Dutchman is the big unknown of all the shot stoppers linked with Arsenal this summer, which is interesting given that he is 29 years old.

Cillessen only played nine times for Barcelona this past season. He has previously been first choice for the Netherlands and was a star at Ajax, but since moving to Barcelona in 2016 he has only played two La Liga matches and he has mostly plays cup games.

By all accounts, he has done very well in those limited appearances. It is just hard to get a read on a goalkeeper that has not played consistently in two years, and, when he was playing, was behind superior defenders against far inferior opposition.

Cillessen is a solid keeper, but it is not certain that he would be an upgrade on what Arsenal currently have. The player himself has also stated that he would like to remain at Barcelona, but there is swirling speculation that he could be forced out.

Of the three most commonly Arsenal-linked goalkeepers, Bernd Leno is the most proven.

However, none of them are a sure thing.

At the same time, Cech’s age is showing more each match and Ospina looks on the way out. Decisions need to be made, and quickly.

Hopefully, Sven Mislintat and company bring Arsenal a long-term goalkeeper to shore up the back this summer.

Statistics courtesy of Squawka, Fox Sports, and WhoScored