Bernd Leno says he was unlucky with the way his attempted clearance of Sadio Mane’s cross led to James Milner breaking the deadlock for Liverpool in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at the Emirates.

Mane appeared to be aiming for Mo Salah at the back post when he fired a waist height ball across the Gunners six-yard box on 61 minutes. Under no pressure, the German opted to push the ball away with two hands, only for Rob Holding to deflect it straight into the path of Milner who netted with a first time finish.

It’s been suggested that keeper, who in the first half missed a cross that Virgil van Dyck nearly converted, might have done better with the situation. After the game 26-year-old claimed he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“It’s a bit unfortunate,” he told ESPN FC. “You stay away, the guy at the back scores, maybe nobody will blame you.

“If you go into it and the one in the middle scores, all say parry in another way.

“It’s not that easy in this situation because I completely tried to get there.

“You can’t really say where it’ll go, and then the ball falls flat on Milner’s feet. And that’s the goal.”

As Liverpool celebrated their goal, a huge roar went up around the Emirates, urging the players to maintain the momentum they’d worked so hard to build. They claimed a share of the spoils with eight minutes remaining courtesy of Alex Lacazette’s clinical finish. The response on the terraces and the pitch bodes well, says Leno.

“It shows a bit the squad’s character right now, also of the fans,” he said. “I don’t know how things were in the past. But at the beginning of the season, you had the feeling the fans become very uneasy, but the fans immediately pushed us forward.

“Every player feels that, and there was this feeling after the 1-0 we could still win the match. We scored 10 minutes from time. Every player wanted to win it. It didn’t work, sadly. But the atmosphere and the character of the team right now is very good.”