Everton v Aston Villa: Emi Martinez to step up after ‘Silly’ Sutton admission
Aston Villa are having a peculiar old season in a way.
After all the excitement of last campaign and qualifying for the Champions League, it was always going to be extremely difficult to replicate that.
In Europe, Villa have had some outstanding moments and with Emery’s expertise in European competition there will hopefully be plenty more to come this side of the New Year.
Domestically, though, it’s been a little more mixed. Not terrible by any stretch but certainly inconsistent and they face Everton on Wednesday (15 January) at Goodison Park sitting eighth in the Premier League but only four points adrift of fourth.
Writing for BBC Sport (13 January), former Villa striker Chris Sutton said he expects Villa to triumph 2-0 but did have some reservations about Unai Emery’s men.
“I have got Aston Villa’s Emi Martinez in my Fantasy team, and I see him as the best goalkeeper in the Premier League, but they always seem to concede silly goals,” he said.
“So it is possible to get at Villa, I just don’t see Everton managing it.
“I don’t like talking about myself much but my last goal as a professional footballer was a clever header in a Villa win over a Moyes’ Everton team at Goodison Park, and I am going for the same outcome here.”
Emi Martinez needs to step up for Aston Villa
In fairness, Sutton makes a valid point about the “silly” goals and Martinez has been kind of emblematic of the inconsistency plaguing Villa. Against Everton, the World Cup winner needs to start stepping up.
According to FotMob, Martinez has a save percentage of just 62.2% this season, which ranks a hugely disappointing 18th among Premier League goalkeepers.
On average, Martinez concedes 1.6 goals per 90 minutes – a figure that he will be personally disappointed with and it represents the seventh worst average in the top flight.
Only Brentford’s Mark Flekken (35) has conceded more goals than Martinez (31) has, while the Argentina stopper has keep just a measly two clean sheets in the Premier League – the 20th worst in the division.
He ranks 17th for saves per 90 (2.6), though obviously those figures can sometimes be distorted by the fact other teams face more shots on their goal, but he also has a goals prevented rating of -3.5, with only Jose Sa (-6.1) and Alphonse Areola (-6.9) worse in that regard.
For a goalkeeper rated by many as the best in the world, frankly the stats just aren’t backing that up right now.
But we all know how good Martinez is and how important he is. But he needs to start stepping it up, beginning against Everton.
In other Aston Villa news, Celtic want to strike a transfer agreement with the Villans for an attacker signing.
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