Arsenal’s new £20 million goalkeeper, Bernd Leno, took part in his first training session with the club at London Colney on Monday.

The highly-rated signing from Bayern Leverkusen will wear the No19 shirt – even though he is widely expected to start as first choice keeper.

With Petr Cech turning 36 in June and David Ospina likely to depart the club rather than drop to third in the pecking order of Gunners’ shot stoppers. new boss Unai Emery is expected to install the 26-year-old as his No1.

The North London giants are hoping the former Stuttgart man will transform the role into a ‘sweeper-keeper’ after he averaged more touches of the ball and played more passes than any keeper in the Bundesliga last term for Leverkusen – more than Bayern Munich’s Sven Ulreich, who deputised for an injured Manuel Neur and Werder Bremen’s Jiri Pavlenka.

Bietigheim-Bissingen-born Leno is consistency personified having only missed three matches in the last seven years - more than 229 games between 2011 and the end of the 2017-18 season for Leverkusen.

He opted for the No19 shirt as the number has special significance for the German after he signed for Leverkusen aged 19. He also joined Arsenal on June 19 last month.