Trevor Sinclair told talkSPORT that Alex Runarsson’s ‘not a patch’ on Emi Martinez who was sold by Edu to Aston Villa this summer.
When Arsenal lost Martinez’s services after he helped them win the FA Cup and the Community Shield, they replaced him with Iceland international, Runarsson, who it’s fair to say had a horror show against Manchester City in the League Cup on Tuesday.
It seems as though every time Arsenal talk about their keepers, Martinez has to be mentioned, and in truth, things aren’t helped by the fact that he has kept the most clean sheets at a thriving Aston Villa this season.
Former England winger Sinclair shared his thoughts on Runarsson and how Arsenal’s decision to part ways with Martinez was ‘strange’.
“Alex Runarsson, he’s a young player but he’s not a patch on Emi Martinez,” said Sinclair.
“So, even if you want to make Emi Martinez happy, you don’t make him happy by selling him to Aston Villa so he can play games for somebody whose going to play against you. Strange decision.”
Until Arsenal sort out their mess on the field of play then decisions such as this will only come back to haunt them, especially if that player is producing the goods like Martinez is at Villa.
Arsenal didn’t do much wrong in allowing Martinez to leave because it would have been harsh to push Bernd Leno to the bench when he returned from injury given that he was probably his side’s second-best player behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang during these troubling 18 or so months.
Anyhow, the likes of Mikel Arteta have bigger matters to deal with and one of them is trying to get them out of their current mire.
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