Arsenal are at the beginning of a new era under new manager Unai Emery after Arsene Wenger decided to step down at the end of last season.
Wenger had managed the Premier League club for more than two decades and Arsenal decided to go with Unai Emery as his replacement. The Spaniard was one of the better coaches available during that time. Emery had just been sacked as the coach of Paris Saint Germain.
Unai Emery’s first official match was against the defending Premier League champions, Manchester City. The former PSG manager decided to leave out his new signing Bernd Leno and start with the experienced Petr Cech in goal.
Although the former Chelsea keeper put on an assured display, he came close to scoring an own goal. Also, Cech struggled to play out of the back during the game. Videos of the incident were widely shared on social media and Leno’s former club Bayer Leverkusen responded to one such post with a joke about wanting Leno to start instead. They also tweeted out a video of Leno playing out of the back while at Leverkusen to justify their claim.
Offended by their Twitter remarks, Cech took to Twitter to hit out at the German club for their lack of professionalism and sportsmanship.
His tweet read: Arsenal we share important values which make us a big club not only on the football side. Fair competition, professionalism and sportsmanship are the biggest ones you teach young footballers and it’s sad to see when other clubs don’t share the same values.”
.@Arsenal we share important values which make us a big club not only on the football side . Fair competition, professionalism and sportsmanship are the biggest ones you teach young footballers and it’s sad to see when other clubs don’t share the same values. .@bayer04_en
— Petr Cech (@PetrCech) August 13, 2018
Bayer Leverkusen responded with claims that they were simply joking. The German club also wished Cech all the best for the season.
Their tweet read: “Hi Petr. It seems our joke about wanting to see Leno, our former player, in action has been taken a bit more harshly/personally than intended. It was only a bit of banter. We’re all for the values you’ve stated and wish you and your big club all the best. Nice 1v1 save on Aguero!”
Hi Petr. It seems our joke about wanting to see Leno, our former player, in action has been taken a bit more harshly/personally than intended. It was only a bit of banter. We’re all for the values you’ve stated and wish you and your big club all the best. Nice 1v1 save on Aguero!
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) August 13, 2018
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