Leno surprised by high spirits at Arsenal

Bernd Leno admits to being pleasantly surprised by the positive mood in the Arsenal camp which has helped him to settle following a summer transfer.

Unai Emery moved to bolster his goalkeeping ranks when landing the Germany international in a €22 million (£19.2m/$25m) agreement with Bayer Leverkusen.

Leno is among those to have been drafted in by the Gunners as they seek to force their way back into the Premier League’s top four.

He is already feeling comfortable in new surroundings, with there no suggestion that struggles towards the end of Arsene Wenger’s reign have left a cloud over Emirates Stadium.

Leno told Arsenal’s official website after playing 90 minutes in a 2-0 friendly victory over Lazio: “I’m so proud to be part of Arsenal.

“The team is very nice, the coaching is very good and it’s fun to be here.

“It’s like a family, we have big players, big personalities but I think the atmosphere is brilliant. I’m a little bit surprised [by how good it is], it’s very good for me to come to a team as a new player and the team make it very easy.”

Leno, who will be competing with Petr Cech for starting duties in 2018-19, added on his first full outing for the Gunners: “I am satisfied [with the Lazio game], I think the team showed a good performance and the defence was very good as well. We won the game but the most important thing was the performance and that was very good.

“I think we are very close to being at 100 per cent. It was exciting to be in Singapore, then on Wednesday we had a difficult game, and today again, but now we can relax a bit and on Tuesday we will focus on the game on Sunday and prepare for Man City.”

Arsenal are set to open their Premier League campaign against the reigning champions, with a testing start then seeing them face London rivals Chelsea in their second outing.