Aston Villa journalist Gregg Evans has been sharing his thoughts on Villa’s signing of Emiliano Martinez.
This comes after Evans recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Villa-themed podcast 1874 where he spoke about a variety of subjects concerning the Birmingham club.
On the subject of Villa’s summer transfer window and who they signed during the window, Evans had this to say on Villa’s deal for Martinez.
He said: “Martinez is a great signing, you’ve seen the importance of having a good goalkeeper [in the Liverpool game], with Adrian making his error so early on in the game. If he doesn’t make that [error] do Villa go on and win 7-2? Probably not – and it just reminded me a little bit of Villa in previous years where goalkeepers have cost Villa dear, cost them a lot of points with errors.
“Martinez looks like a real safe pair of hands, he made a couple of decent saves as well. I think that’s probably the best bit of business they’ve done, because to get a goalkeeper in his prime at 28-years-old from Arsenal – and he was playing as their number one last season – unfortunately for clubs like Villa, or at least how Villa were perceived at the start of this season, those players don’t become available very often, it’s very, very rare that you get them, so [it’s] a great signing.”
Villa signed the shot-stopper from Arsenal for a fee of £15.66 million last month and he has since gone on to play in all three of Villa’s opening Premier League fixtures, conceding just two goals.
In Villa’s opening Premier League match of the 2020/21 season against Sheffield United, Martinez saved a penalty in the game and ultimately kept a clean sheet on his Villa debut.
Last season, Martinez earned himself a season rating of 7.02/10 for his performances in the nine appearances he made for Arsenal in the Premier League, making him their third-highest rated player for the campaign (per WhoScored).
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TIF Thoughts…
Given how Martinez has saved a penalty and only conceded two goals in his first three league games for Villa, this shows just how well he has done for the club since he arrived at Villa Park which makes it understandable why Evans thinks he has been Villa’s best purchase throughout the recent summer transfer window.