Emiliano Martinez was the focus of attention in the Premier League, but for all the opposite reasons as his former team, Arsenalromped to a 4-2 victory againstAston Villa.The Gunners traveled to Birminghamhaving lost three of their previous four games, and they got off to the worst possible start in the game as well, being forced to comeback from two separate deficits.
Despite being down 2-1 at halftime, the visitors managed to tie the game at the one-hour mark. Then, in the dying minutes of the extra time, Jorginho’s long-range shot hit the underside of the crossbar, and Martinez finished the job by clumsily heading the ball into his own net.
In the subsequent seconds, the Argentine World Cup winnerteamed up with his Villa colleagues in the Arsenal box to take a corner and try to earn his club a much-needed equalizer. Yet Mikel Arteta’s playerslaunched a counterattack, and Gabriel Martinelli sped in to tap the ball past thehelpless goalkeeperand give his sidethe victory.
What did Unai Emery say aboutEmiliano Martinez’s display against Arsenal?
As Martinez’s efforts led to the game-winning goals, an angry Unai Emery slammed his goalie in the post-game press conference. The Villa manager said that he had not instructed Martinez to advance and that he had made the choice on his own.
“I have never told my goalkeeper to go and score one goal in the 90th minute, because maybe – and I don’t know the data – maybe one goal in 100, maybe 20 times they [the opponents] are doing a counter transition and they are scoring 10 goals. Today, it happened. And for me it’s not being very smart, not being very consistent in how we want to play, how we want to compete. We can play, we can lose 2-3, but 2-4? It’s not a good result.
“Today I am very disappointed and it is embarrassing for me, the last goal. Because I never told my goalkeeper to go to a corner to score a goal. It is not the spirit, we have to keep our mind clear and smart. We have to progress in the way that we are working. We have to take confidence of course, but sometimes making mistakes you have to improve. We were very happy with how the team worked and prepared for the match.
“But then on the pitch after scoring first we were thinking when will the match finish. You have to play 90 minutes. I never told my goalkeeper to do it. But today he decided, it was his decision. He was not doing something about my decision because I didn’t tell him, but now he knows. He knows now”, Emery was quoted as saying by BT Sport and BBC.
