What a signing Emiliano Martinez has been for Aston Villa.
The Villans snapped him up in a £20 million deal from Arsenal this past summer.
And although that’s quite a lot for a goalkeeper, Martinez, who now has 12 clean sheets so far this season, is saving and winning Aston Villa a lot of points this season.
He has arguably been Villa’s best and most consistent player in a brilliant campaign which has Dean Smith’s side eighth in the Premier League table and only four points behind Liverpool – with two games in hand.
So much of their form stems from Martinez’s quality and that was evident again last night.
Smith’s troops were held to a 0-0 draw away to Brighton but it could and would have been a hefty defeat if not for the Argentine goalkeeper, who produced a number of fine saves in the first half.
And the Aston Villa boss simply couldn’t say enough positive things about the former Gunner afterwards, telling Goal.com: “Emi’s a fantastic goalkeeper and a great acquisition for Aston Villa but he’ll be the first to admit that for the 12 clean sheets this season he’s been protected really well. Today we didn’t and we kept giving them the ball back and he was called into action too much.
“He was very good today. It was a one-man show at times, such was the sloppiness of our play.”
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
