Unai Emery claims Emi Martinez has an important role to play for Aston Villa beyond his ability to make crucial saves like in the victory against Chelsea last weekend.
The Argentina number one made a number of key stops in the club’s 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge as he kept his 41st Premier League sheet for the club. Martinez kept 13 clean sheets last season, with seven of them coming in Villa’s last 15 games as Emery's side shot up the table by collecting 33 points from the 45 available in that time.
Martinez joined Villa for just £17m from Arsenal three years ago and he has more than repaid the fee which the Gunners accepted for his sale. Villa head coach Emery managed Martinez at Arsenal and he featured eight times under him.
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Emery’s managerial career spans more than 19 years and nine different clubs, but he thinks Martinez is displaying the best form he has seen from any of his previous goalkeepers.
“I’ve had very good goalkeepers, but really, I think with Emiliano Martinez, I think it’s the best moment I can feel,” he admitted. “He is a goalkeeper adapting to each tactic we are trying to build. He is being very, very focused trying to defend our back four. He is doing very well.
“Sometimes we needed him to save us and he did it, still being important building our idea and style, trying to be comfortable in the way we are trying to play. He is very important for us because like I told you I think it’s very difficult to find a goalkeeper like him.”
Villa’s match-winner at Stamford Bridge was Ollie Watkins, who scored his first league goal of the campaign to secure a big three points. After Martinez pulled off a number of important saves to deny Chelsea in the second half, Watkins also hailed the goalkeeper.
“We concede goals because we play such a high line it is risky,” Watkins said. “But we've got an unbelievable goalkeeper who one versus one is so hard to score against.
"We have such a good squad. We have crucial players out with injuries that we cannot forget about. We just have to keep recovering and keep working hard."
