During Mikel Arteta’s first half-season in charge, Martinez showed solid form, stepping in as the starting goalkeeper and proving himself capable of being the club’s number one. His performances even led some Arsenal fans to believe he was better than Bernd Leno, who was the club’s first-choice goalkeeper at the time.
However, in the summer of 2020, Arteta made the decision to sell Martinez and stick with Leno as Arsenal’s main goalkeeper—a decision that, in hindsight, seems questionable. Since joining Aston Villa, Martinez has excelled, becoming one of the Premier League’s top goalkeepers.
Most recently, he kept a clean sheet for Villa in their match against Bayern Munich, a performance that led legendary goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel to remark that Arsenal must now view Martinez as “one that got away.” His success at Villa suggests that Arsenal may have underestimated his long-term value.
Schmeichel said, as quoted by Metro Sport:
‘Martinez, I think he has proven Arsenal wrong, for sure.
‘I think he’s a big personality and I think he’s helping that team [Villa] a lot.
‘Will he be able to do the job at Man City? I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t know.
‘But he’s a winner, obviously a World Cup winner, he’s just won the Copa [America]. So he’s getting there as well.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
Martinez has done well at Villa, but he could have struggled if we had kept him and we made a good fee from selling him.
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Matinez for all his height and big reach cannot come out and collect crosses as well as Raya does and that takes a lot of pressure off your defense and it prevents shots I am happy with Raya esp this season he has gone up a level and I’d only put Man C and Liv keepers ahead of him within this league and he is closing the gap so let’s see who the players will vote for come the season’s end
Honestly , I must admit David Raya signing redeems the gaffer, for all the talk about Martinez exploits between the stick is now irrelevant.
We don’t care anymore
Raya is doing great thanks
Manchester united is lacking their so-called legends commends and tips, because all those Manchester United football experts are irritating our Gunners fan base, are they not having one, right, or maybe because is just chaos there…
Martinez kept a clean sheet against Bayern, so what? Raya kept two against PSG and Atalanta including stopping a penalty kick. And he kept the highest number of them in the PL last season.
Sometimes it’s so difficult to understand what point these pundits really make with their comments.
Yes, Martinez has proved Arsenal wrong but it’s all water under the bridge now. I doubt there’s much sleep lost from both parties.
I wouldn’t argue that Emi’s a better keeper than Leno and would have ousted him from first spot if he’d stayed with us, but we have a younger and probably as good keeper now, so it’s all worked out well for us and Villa.
I don’t really don’t understand what you mean by proving arsenal and Miguel arteta wrong last year raya claims a golden gloves as the best keeper of premier League what did Martinez went home with an apart from that was it in the time of Mikel arteta that Martinez left arsenal you should try and understand that we are not in any way lacking in that position we have a much younger keeper that is capable of going all the way to make it so what are you saying