While there were excellent performances across the pitch in Aston Villa’s 2-0 win over Chelsea, Emiliano Martinez was one player who particularly stood out.
The 30-year-old World Cup winner made seven saves, six of which were from shots inside the box, had two high claims, 53 touches with a 64% passing completion rate as well as winning both duels he was involved in.
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On his 100th Premier League appearance for Villa, Martinez also registered his 34th clean sheet, breaking the club record for the most clean sheets by a goalkeeper in their first 100 league outings.
As seen in the club’s tweet below, the previous record-holders Mark Bosnich and Brad Friedel were both on hand to send messages to the Argentine international, and it was clearly a proud moment for him.
There has been a lot of noise over Martinez’s future at Villa in recent months, which was to be expected following his success with Argentina, but he has consistently, publicly and strongly hinted that he still has a lot he wants to achieve at the club, namely winning a trophy and playing a fundamental role in getting us back into Europe.
While that seems more and more of a possibility this season given our recent form, our focus will quickly switch to Leicester City on Tuesday night as we look to keep our good run going and to continue to close the gap on those above us in the Premier League table having now moved up into ninth place in the standings.
For Martinez though, it’s an important landmark for him to reach at Villa and he continues to show his class and quality between the posts to help us establish a solid foundation defensively on which we can go out and win games.
He produced a string of top saves at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening to keep us in the game and then ahead, and beyond the shot-stopping, his leadership, winning mentality and experience all play a crucial role in organising the defensive unit and making us harder to beat.
Further, he’s showing continuing progress in his distribution as he adapts to Unai Emery’s demands in terms of playing out from the back, and although that aspect can still be worked on to improve, he is moving in the right direction and showing he can play that way.
Time will tell if Villa can qualify for Europe this season, as although it was arguably not in the roadmap for Emery and the club as early as next year, if we make it we’ll have to adjust and prepare accordingly.
Naturally, it’s hoped that we do, as that will be an important part of the process to keep our top players at the club and continue to strengthen around them with top level acquisitions that Emery will be desperate to bring in this summer to develop the squad and mould it into his own.
There is little doubt that Martinez is a pillar of the side having established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in world football, if not the best, and he’ll hopefully continue to play a pivotal role for us between now and the end of the season which in turn helps us aim as high as possible in the standings and ultimately return to Europe.
Three of our best. 🙌
🗣️ @TheRealBozza
🗣️ Brad Friedel
🗣️ @EmiMartinezz1 https://t.co/JYMB6fJGRy pic.twitter.com/te2z49EJw0— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 1, 2023