‘One of the best’: Jamie Carragher makes interesting claim about player Arsenal sold

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Jamie Carragher has told Sky Sports PL (21/09/20 at 5:50 pm) that he doesn’t think there was ‘too much’ between Emiliano Martinez and Arsenal’s number one Bernd Leno.

During the restart, Leno suffered an injury against Brighton, which allowed Martinez to become Arsenal’s temporary number one, as Carragher stated that he was ‘one of the best’ goalkeepers during that period.

Mikel Arteta opted to keep Leno as his main guy when he returned from his injury, as Martinez has since decided to make a switch to Aston Villa.

Former Liverpool defender Carragher lauded Martinez’s qualities and made an interesting comparison between the now-Villa player and Leno.

“So impressed with him,” Carragher told Sky Sports. “I actually thought Mikel Arteta had a real decision to make with the return of injury with Leno. But obviously, if you can get good money for your back-up goalkeeper.

“I don’t think there was too much between Leno, before the injury, and Martinez’s performances afterwards, really. More often than not when a team bring in the back-up goalkeeper, it will really affect them, but it didn’t with Arsenal and they had a great end to the season.

“He looked like one of the best number 2’s in the league really. That’s what has really opened Aston Villa’s eyes to bring him into the club. He was fantastic.

“They had problems in the goalkeeping position. Lots of different goalkeepers at different times – but in Martinez, if you go off his form towards the end of last season, he’s been one of the best goalkeepers in the league.”

Well, Martinez couldn’t have got off to a better start at Aston Villa because he saved a quite brilliant penalty during his side’s 1-0 win over Sheffield United.

At the time, Chris Wilder’s side had just been reduced to 10 men and were offered a great chance to take the lead from the spot-kick, but they were denied by Villa’s new boy.

It’s some start for Martinez, who will be hoping to follow in Leno’s footsteps and help Villa record a clean sheet and win against Fulham next Monday night – the German did exactly that for the Gunners during the opening weekend of the new Premier League campaign.