Bernd Leno says he never feared Pierre-Emerick Auabmeyang would push for a January exit at Arsenal despite interest from Barcelona.
Aubameyang was heavily linked with the Spanish champions, who were in the market for a forward following an injury to Luis Suarez.
With his contract at Emirates Stadium due to expire in 18 months and talks over a new deal having stalled, there have been suggestions that the Gabon international was looking for a move away.
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Aubameyang spoke out to deny that at the start of the window, however, saying he was ‘100% committed’ to Arsenal and that the constant reports over his future were doing his ‘head in’.
Head coach Mikel Arteta also stated that Aubameyang would not be going anywhere and that’s how it proved, with the transfer window passing without the Gunners losing their skipper or any of the senior players in their squad.
Granit Xhaka - who looked certain to be on his way out after his public fall-out with the Arsenal fans in October - also stayed put and speaking after Sunday’s 0-0 draw at Burnley, Leno says he never had any doubts both would remain in north London.
“Of course there are many rumours and other people talk about this,” said the German keeper. “But you never had the feeling that any player was thinking about another club or wanted to leave, was refusing to train or they didn’t have the mentality in the training.
“Everybody can see we have a new manager and a new mentality. We want to build something here at Arsenal.
“You can see on the pitch all these rumours [don’t affect] these players - they are fighting, they are leading the team and this is the only way.”
Despite returning to the starting XI after a three-game ban on Sunday, Aubameyang was unable to add to his 14 league goals this season as Arsenal drew 0-0 at Turf Moor.
It was the Gunners’ 13th draw of the season in the Premier League and it sent them into the mid-season break sitting 10th in the table, 10 points off the top four and seven points above the relegation zone.
Arteta has now overseen one win, one defeat and five draws from his first seven league games as head coach and although Arsenal have certainly tightened things up defensively since he arrived, going forward they continue to struggle for goals - with just seven coming from those seven matches.
Alexandre Lacazette has now gone nine games without scoring in all competitions and by the time Arsenal host Newcastle after the mid-season break, the France striker will have gone a full calendar year without scoring a league goal away from Emirates Stadium.
It’s a growing concern for the Gunners and Leno admits they do need to be more clinical, but the former Bayer Leverkusen stopper is confident the goals will soon come.
“I think we have chances in every game, we just have to take the chances,” said Leno. “On Sunday we had chances to score maybe two or three, but I think everything comes further along.
“Of course we need to score more goals because defensively we are doing very good and offensively I think we can score more. But we are on the right way.”
