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Emiliano Martinez

On Saturday, Emi will become the 4th Arsenal ' keeper in 6 years to play in the FA Cup final. It has been a strange journey for the Argentian, who has to wait very patiently for a chance.

Emi was signed a decade ago, in July 2010, as a 17 year old. Another youngster, Wojciech Szczesny, had just broken through into the first team Arsenal, whilst Lukasz Fabianski, Manual Almunia and even Jens Lehmann were at the club.

An unlikely chance of senior football came at the end of 2011/12 season, as a crisis at Oxford led to a final game loan. It didn't go brilliantly, Oxford lost 3-0. Around this time he also had a surprise call up to the Argentian national side, although he didn't make the match day squad.

In the 2012/13 season, Emi had the honour of making his Arsenal debut. It wasn't the toughest of games for him, with Arsenal beating Coventry 6-1 in the League Cup. His second appearance, in the same competition, was a lot more eventful. Arsenal found themselves 4-0 down at Reading after less than 40 minutes. At least one goal was Emi's fault, and it was proving a disaster. Of course, Arsenal came back to win 7-5, but it proved to be the last Arsenal first team appearance for a couple of seasons.

In the 13/14 season, Emi went on loan to Sheffield Wednesday as back up to former England international. At one stage of the season he did usurp Kirkland, and ended the season with 15 appearances and 2 clean sheets.

He stayed at Arsenal for the 14/15 season as third choice behind Szczesny and David Ospina. An injury to Ospina saw Emi promoted to the bench, and then during a defeat to Manchester United, Szczesny got injured and Martinez found himself centre stage.
He quickly found himself making his Champions League debut, a 2-1 win over Anderlecht, before a run of 3 clean sheets - 2 in the PL and a third in a famous 2-0 victory over Dortmund in the CL best remembered for a stunning Yaya Sanogo goal.
They proved his only games for Arsenal that season, and he spent the last couple of months of the season on loan to Rotherham, where he helped them avoid relegation.

In the 15/16 season it was a loan to Championship side Wolves, where he would be fighting for a place with fan favourite Carl Ikeme. They shared the duties in the first 4 games, before Emi got a run of 11 starts. Injury against Barnsley proved costly as Ikeme kept his place for the rest of the season.

In the 16/17 season he once again tried to stake a claim for the Arsenal #1 position. However, his appearances were limited to 3 EFL Cup ties and 2 PL ties (both ending 3-0, 1 in favour 1 against).

Perhaps his most frustrating season was 17/18. He went off to Spain to try his luck in La Liga with Getafe. 4 La Liga starts were all his was given, keeping 2 clean sheets and facing Real Madrid away in what was perhaps a career highlight despite losing 3-1.

He begun the 18/19 staying at Arsenal, keeping goal in a 1-0 win over Qarabag in the Europa. With another lack of chances, Emi once again dropped down to the Championship on loan, this time with Reading. It proved to be the most fruitful of all his loans - 18 appearances for the Royals. His form earnt him a recall to the Argentinian squad, some 8 years after his previous call up.

So onto this season. Under Emery he was the Europa number 1, playing all 6 games. He was also used in the FA Cup by Arteta. However, finding himself dropped to the bench for both legs of the last 32 tie with Olympiakos, it looked a massive snub. A Leno error to cost us the tie only rubbed salt into the wounds. Massive question marks over the future of Martinez were raised.

Then lockdown happened. Then, during the second game of the resumed campaign, Bernd Leno picked up a season ending knee injury. Suddenly Emi Martinez was finally Arsenal number 1. Would he take his chance? The fans were pessimistic.
He has made 22 appearances this season, and kept 9 clean sheets. But, on top of that, he has recieved plaudits from many observers for his calm, dominant performances. Arsenal fans are even talking about him being undroppable even when Leno is fit. Quite the turnaround.

Emi is 28 in a months time, and only has 100 senior appearances to his name - with just 15 of them being in the Premier League.

Should we praise his patience and loyalty - or question his ambition?
Should we question why he wasn't good enough for Getafe, Wolves and Sheffield Wednesday - or question why they were chosen as good loan deals?


Emi has a chance to make a career defining performance on Saturday, there were times when he must have doubted if he would be anything more than a bench warmer.

comment by 8bit (U2653)

posted on 1/8/20

How do some fans still blame kroenke for lack of spending

posted on 1/8/20

Comment Deleted by Article Creator

posted on 1/8/20

Comment Deleted by Article Creator

posted on 1/8/20

Wrong thread Nerves are getting to me.

posted on 1/8/20

comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 2 hours ago
Last 5 years net spend:
Arsenal £250m - Liverpool £92m

Position 5 seasons ago
Arsenal 2nd - Liverpool 8th

Position now
Arsenal 8th - Liverpool champions by 20 odd points.


All Kroenkes fault for not allowing us to spend.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
As someone has already pointed out. Your numbers fail to account for the hundreds of millions spent by the other top club whilst we spent nothing. We're playing spending catchup DJ.

The -500 billion starting point we had vs the other top teams DID have an impact ya know.

posted on 1/8/20

comment by WB2 (Emery'll Get Me Killed) (U8276)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 2 hours ago
Last 5 years net spend:
Arsenal £250m - Liverpool £92m

Position 5 seasons ago
Arsenal 2nd - Liverpool 8th

Position now
Arsenal 8th - Liverpool champions by 20 odd points.


All Kroenkes fault for not allowing us to spend.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
As someone has already pointed out. Your numbers fail to account for the hundreds of millions spent by the other top club whilst we spent nothing. We're playing spending catchup DJ.

The -500 billion starting point we had vs the other top teams DID have an impact ya know.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Not sure what spending to get Liverpool 8th is really in favour of your argument. They had to do an almost complete rebuild. And our net spend is 4th since 2003 - again also ahead of the champions.

posted on 1/8/20

Jordan Henderson is the only player still at Liverpool from the start of the period I am talking about. They finished that season 8th, and completely rebuilt their squad - with a lower net spend than Arsenal.
Arsenal went from 2nd to 8th in that time, Liverpool went from 8th to runaway champions.

That is not on owner input, that is from good signings, good sellings and good player development. That is not on Kroenke.

posted on 1/8/20

Fack the last 5 years, imagine in the 03/04 season being told that over the next 16 years we will have a greater net spend than Liverpool, but will finish over 40 points behind them in the table
Then imagine blaming that on the club not spending.

comment by 8bit (U2653)

posted on 1/8/20

it's madness, we're one of the biggest spending clubs in the world, probably top 6 or 7. if anything our problem is being too wasteful with money and not having anything to show for it, the likes of Wolves and Leicester arguably have better XI's than us.

posted on 1/8/20

FGS will you two shut up about our distracting netspend figure. It DOESN'T mean we spend just as much money on players as the other top teams. It just reflects how much money we DON'T MAKE on player resale.

Can't believe you can't see the link between being prepared to pay that premium transfer fee and having players still worth alot of money to sell. And how that relates to the Arsenal net spend.

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