Ramsdale doing what Martinez couldn’t! (so it seems)
What a difference a year makes, for every sort of situation and one in particular that stands out is the one with Emiliano Martinez.
A lot has been said about Martinez when he was in his last season at the club and the fact that he did so well for Arsenal before he left.
I myself stated so many times I was disappointed when he left, and had he stayed maybe we would not have finished as low and as poorly as we did last season.
But every season is a new one and I think even Martinez himself will admit that his performance levels are different to when he first joined Aston Villa.
So, how must Martinez feel now that, over his many years at Arsenal, he couldn’t knock any goalkeeper off their perch to take that number one spot, and in his last season in particular, he couldn’t knock Bernd Leno off of that number one spot?
Yet it has taken it seems, Aaron Ramsdale, to come in a season after Martinez leaves, to pretty much knock Leno off his perch and really rival him for that number one jersey. So far so good on that front.
Does that mean that Emi really didn’t have what it takes to make it? Does it mean that he was just a one season wonder when he appeared for us at the end of the season and last season for Villa in his first year at the club?
Well based on how he is performing so far this season for them, although not the worst, it does seem that he is now even more prone to letting goals in, not all his own fault it has to be said, but the goalkeeper is the last man standing and at times, he would admit, he could have and should have done better.
Don’t get me wrong Ramsdale has also let some goals in, including last night against Villa, but I hope that he continues his form past one season and rival Leno for that number one spot.
And although Villa came away from the Emirates with zero points, at least Martinez can be happy with the penalty save from Aubameyang despite conceding from the rebound.
But it does seem Martinez was a one season wonder, especially against us last season when they did the double over us, but they were quickly brought back to reality this season and there was no way were we going to let Martinez take all the plaudits again!
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
Ramsdale has proved so many of us wrong, and to be honest I’m really in love with him, the club know they made a big mistake letting EMI leave but they fixed it by getting an equally good keeper in Ramsdale. One thing I love about Ramsdale is he seem to grow in confidence each match, yesterday his distribution is the best have seen in an arsenal goalkeeper, he knows when to go long and when to go short. EMI showed us what a complete goalkeeper should be, and in Ramsdale I think we’ve found our complete goalkeeper.
EMI is gone he wanted to be Argentina first choice, he wanted to win a trophy with Argentina and he made his dream comes true, EMI has moved on so should we. I know the main reason for this article is to gather traffic but I don’t think it’s worth it, we should be celebrating our win not dwelling on a Keeper who is no longer playing for us.
By saying these, shows you don’t pay so much attention to EMI cos when ever he has the opportunity he most say something bad about arsenal so this is the beginning of what he deserved,nice article up gunners.
Lol you are naive if you think Martinez or any arsenal players care about whatever we say on just arsenal.
very true sp – it’s not huge criticism but every interview he says something derogatory about us, so this was payback.
That’s true,he never misses the opportunity to have a dig at Arsenal.what about his reaction to conceding the penalty, a bit over the top wasn’t it?
And wow I beat GOA to it🤣🤣
😒
Martinez’s saves last night have shown how good he is
The competition between Ramsdale and Leno will keep improving their abilities. Unfortunately, I think Leno will be sold in the summer, simply because of his salary, age and non-homegrown status
The board is the one to blame for his sale because both Martinez and Leno were supposed to kept. Leno is still the same keeper we bought. He has world class reflexes but poor in a lot of other areas. He was never going to be here for long.
IMO, this statement isn’t correct. Martinez was arsenal contract rebel.
He wouldn’t sign new contract and the best option was to sell, same as Laccazet, I’ll take any bid for him.
To me he deserve what he get from the fans. He left, and despite the fact that he betrayed our trust, majority of the fans still defend his departure, however he use every opportunity to talk about arsenal, the club that nurtured him for 10yrs and gave him the platform
Arsenal sold him to make money. He wanted to be No. 1 and today he has proven even more to be better than Leno. He was here for 10 years and had no proper shot to be No. 1. If the club thought he was average they should’ve sold him long ago. Aldo he didn’t betray any trust. He did what was best for his career and I’d advice any serious player to do same.
If Leno had a strong competitor last season and if he was allowed to make many long distributions like Ramsdale, I believe he would’ve been more consistent
Ramsdale’s decision making skills seem to be better though
Has Arteta warned him not to make long balls??? Has he been successful with short passes to begin with???? Credit to where it is due, Ramsdale is another level to Leno.
I assume Arteta didn’t allow him to make long balls too often
Because a non-ball-playing GK like him would’ve kicked the ball long in dangerous situations, instead of forcing himself to make short passes
Wow. You couldn’t have said that any more accurately.
Many people mistake Leno’s reflexes for good goalkeeping, yet good goalkeeping is an assortment of many other qualities.
Emi Martinez was impatient, and Arteta actually didn’t manage the situation well enough. Emi would have ultimately displaced Leno and become the de facto No.1, its just that Arteta didnt feel comfortable giving him that definite assurance in clear words.
Arteta i think has realised his mistake, and has remedied it with Ramsdale by very quickly backing him and giving him the assurances he needed.
Is Ramsdale as good as Martinez is today? Maybe not, but i have no doubt he will be in the future!
👍👍👍
Emi Martinez did not ever get a decent run at Arsenal. So we can not miss what we never had.
We lost to new boys Brenford, Chelsea at home and City put 5 past Ramsdale. The last 6 games have been against soft opponents. Leicester Liverpool and Utd away will be a better measure of the team including Ramsdale.
All three of Arsenal goals v Villa were extremely lucky. The Villains defense made a dogs breakfast of Parteys softly deflected header. The penalty was no penalty and was saved but fell into the path of Auba and ESR saw his innocuous effort take a wicked deflection going in off the keepers right hand post.
Luck or lack of remains a huge factor in football.
I like how you tell it how it is. That’s how its supposed to be, we should judge from the eye test and not base it on sentiments or team bias. As for the penalty I only hope we keep the same energy when such goes against us. It wasn’t an easy call though. I can’t stand it when we cry about referees when we are play so poorly
FFS that is how games are won. Have you not heard of making you’re own luck. I agree that no-one should be celebrating winning the league just yet, but take all your victories.
@fairfan
RealTalk 👍🏿
fairfan I thought Leno was the keeper when Man city put 5 against us, maybe I have a short memory
Leno was in goal for Man City fella
You have to get your facts right when commenting.
Which Ramsdale conceded five against City?
Plus, because MA wouldn’t /couldn’t guarantee him the No. 1 position and, as he wasn’t prepared to compete for it, our manager made the right decision and sold him.
If Leno had made the same demands, I am certain MA would have made the same decision.
Sorry but it’s totally not how it is. Against City we played with the previous defensive line up, including Leno.
In football, at this level, scoring three goals isn’t all luck. You capitalise on your opponents weak moments, Villa did the same.
Martinez in a good keeper has a good frame, confidence and awareness. The only problem is he is not as comfortable with ball at feet and I don’t think he is a leader. You are right why couldn’t he displace Leno under both Arteta and Emery and other keepers under Wenger? That question wasn’t asked when we sold him for 22m. Communication seems to be lacking with him too, compared to Ramsdale who always seems to be on the defenders backs when they don’t close down or make blocks. Martinez didn’t seem to berate his players when the ballsed up.
I think Ramsdale is a better communicator, leader and his passing range is very impressive all at 23 years of age. He will get better and develop those traits where Martinez is in his peak and possibly won’t or can’t add those traits to his game. Martinez just wasn’t the keeper we needed and neither is Leno.
Martinez had a massive profit value where as Leno we only just signed him. So I think Arteta and Edu has done a brilliant job in researching and getting in Ramdale in, so kudos to them for that
Good comments, James
“Communication seems to be lacking with him too, compared to Ramsdale who always seems to be on the defenders backs when they don’t close down or make blocks. Martinez didn’t seem to berate his players when the ballsed up.”
And compared to Leno?
I just think Martinez was unfortunate – never really had the chance to prove himself and so we never felt confident enough to stay him over whoever the No1 was. I thought he’d get his chance the year we signed cech, but then we signed cech, who was always going to play. Hey ho
Regardless of the fact that Ramsdale turned out fantastic so far, Emi is still the better keeper for now.
Club made a mistake and rectified it so good for AFC. Better turn around time than us replacing Gilberto with a proper, dominant DM…..still waiting.
With all due respect Martinez is not better than Ramsdale.
I hope we don’t use a shortsighted approach just for argument sake. In that time Emi took over from Leno and finished the season many had said it was inconclusive and premature even on that form of his to say he was better than Leno.
By the same standard it’s interesting to see some in the past say Ramsdale is better than Leno though not playing more games compared to Emi. I guess everyone picks their favorites.
Favouritism is one of the fun parts of football Kev – we can’t help ourselves!
As fans we also sometimes judge too soon, saying a player is amazing after a few games, but not doing so if you’re Arteta can work against the club, as it did with Martinez. We have the luxury of judging in hindsight, but Arteta IS judged.
Looking at Leno’s failings in hindsight we should have made Martinez no 1, but then we probably couldn’t have bought Partey…
Thank God we bought Ramsdale though (another hast opinion?)
We have watched Ramsdale performed for other clubs, we have seen him do a good job, Arsenal isn’t the first place he had held his guards. The same can’t be said about Martinez.
Emi is a top goalkeeper. We should have kept him in front of Leno, but Aaron Ramsdale has turned out to be a top notch goalkeeper. He commands the penalty are well and is one of the best ‘move’ starters I’ve seen. Leno couldn’t even start anything. We were all proven wrong for sure. Ramsdale will be with us for years and may even become captain. Quality goalkeeper.
Ramsdale is turning out to be a good signing, thats not the bigger picture. The bigger picture is how we got to where we are and the mistakes made. Management is about making fewer mistakes, the less you make the better you are. Martinez was Arsenals best goalkeeper at that time and was allowed to leave, the fact we signed two keepers that were not upto his standard and kept one that also wasn’t has cost us dearly in more ways than one. Martinez is a top keeper we let go. Ramsdale arguably should have replaced Leno, we still have to sort that situation out.
You still saying Leno is as good as Ramsdale, Reggie? Agree about Emi, but did you want Ramsdale? Would you be happy to keep Emi but lose Partey? Sometimes managers get it wrong, sometimes right. We judge in hindsight so of course we always make the right call!
Guy, I have never ever said Leno is better than Ramsdale, i had no problem with Ramsdale and i said right from the start selling Leno and keeping Martinez would have funded Partey, even though i am not one of those who thought Martinez funded Partey. It doesn’t work like that. It is the unnecessary mistakes being made that i am worried about and things fall into place more often than not through fortunate or unfortunate circumstances not good management.
Sorry, should have read, some people said selling Martinez was to fund Partey, i didnt buy into that.
Ramsdale is on form, I like him, for me better than Leno so far but it is still early to evaluate him fully. None of the goals any of the keepers received, they should/could have saved in my opinion.
I liked Emi early before Leno’s injury, he made it in few matches and was fairly good but ge certainly improved gradually in loans, trainings..etc. This what even Emi does not understand, keepers are not born at this level and he is becoming ridiculous and losing sympathy by digging Arsenal at every chanc, both him and fans should move on. Wish him well against all other clubs.
Emi is better than Ramsdale……we won the FA cos of him. At last we got a decent replacement and the two young ….third and fourth keepers are going to get better. Highly rated too. Hopefully Arsenal let Leno go and have faith in the two young goalies ..,…one is an international……we are better in the goalie department……
As good as Ramsdale is right now, he’s still a level below Martinez, Martinez has grown into a world class goalkeeper, he has so much confidence himself that he believes he can stop anything (according to Messi) but like I said in my earlier post, he’s gone and we have a fantastic goalkeeper in Ramsdale now.
Martinez was offered a good contract but wasn’t prepared to fight for his place.
We don’t need prime donnas like that.
Martinez exuded confidence and this spread to the players in front of him
I like what I see from Ramsdale and he similarly gives the team confidence
I’m not against Leno – his great reflexes have been mentioned, but when playing out from the back he would give me the flipping eebie jeebies. The communication was weak
So much is down to maintaining confidence
Ramsdale has done pretty well from a technical perspective. He is also very vocal and a demonstrative personality on the pitch which can help drive the team. Ramsdale also seems to be a better passer than Leno in a way which is important to how Arsenal play. I don’t think we need to keep bemoaning the transfer of Martinez. One caveat is that is still early days for Ramsdale.
Some people insist that it was a mistake to sell Martinez. This is a view I can never agree with. Martinez is a good goalkeeper and had done very well (still doing well) but Arsenal should not be caving in to the kind of demands he made. I maintain that the decision was sound and appropriate given the circumstances.
The difference between Martinez and Ramsdale situation 30 Million Purchase of Ramsdale..
When you buy a goalkeeper for that amount then everyone expect him to be in starting lineup otherwise what’s the use of paying such amount, however in we bought Martinez for cheap so there is pressure as such to play him regularly…
Price tag played important role here
I still think it was a mistake to sell Martinez and disagree he’s a one season wonder. Last year would have been better with him in our side imo
However, I’ve moved on and ramsdale is looking really good. I like his personality (he’s setting standards for himself and those in front of him – massive!) and he does have quality.
I think we should not be arguing on this.
In my opinion Ramsdale is the better goalkeeper if we check their stats more on ball distribution, saves and goals let in i think the young English man is better
he is still 23 a very valuable asset in the feature.
I think Emi is 29yrs so there is a 6yrs differences within them so ramsdale still have 7yrs before his thirtiet bday an Emi is just month from it
I think Aaron is best based on their current form.
Ramsdale the best
we also need sam johnstone
Agree with you on that David. Arsenal as a club, has some set policies and rules and cannot knuckle down to every demand made. That said, there is no doubt that Emi was a great GK, but we have Ramsdale now who is doing a wonderful job. His ball distribution, commanding presence in the box and vocal attributes all add quality to the overall level of play. He is young too and will only get better with time, could be our Captain one day. He is certainly Captain material.
The fans last night singing ‘Aaron Ramsdale, he’s better than you’ made me smile…
Have to give credit where it’s due – maybe all AR needed was better players in front of him. Well done, Aaron, you’ve made me eat my words.
A very happy gooner today 🙂
Aaron is arsenal best keeper for now,l don’t sure whether Leno will stay at Arsenal beyond this season
Sticking with leno wasn’t a bad decision at all. Selling Martinez for 20m only, on the other hand is bad business
Disagree, both were bad decisions in my opinion and we suffered last season and the start of this because of.
We are never satisfied are we 🙂
we includes me by the way…
Martinez refused to sign contract extension except if he was given Assurance of No 1 position but that was too risky for a club to accept what if he he start performing poorly after given such assurance therefore the club allowed him to leave because we have Leno that was still seen as a good keeper. I don’t have problem with martinez leaving because he wanted to start, the only problem I have with him is his derogatory statements about the Arsenal the club that nurtured him for 10 years. luckily for us we have got another goalkeeper Ramsdale who is doing well presently in fact I can compare the two of them to be at the same level.
“Assurance of No 1 position but that was too risky for a club to accept”
He wanted more assurance he works be starting the *next game*, i.e. that he was current No1. Not so unreasonable.
If he’d signed and his performance had dropped, Leno would have taken over. Shouldn’t have been a big deal but I think he got cold feet for being here so long with few opportunities and was worried he’d be dropped again for a bigger name despite how well he’d played.
Not a big deal anymore, but I felt the need to respond because what you wrote was factually incorrect (at least according to the narrative we know about). All’s well that ends well (I think)
Well if Martinez is one of the best keepers on the planet like many arsenal fans think he is surely he’ll help the mighty Villa win silverware we shall see 🤨 no excuses I’ve seen fans on here gushing over the signings of Buendia and Ings and saying how Villa have a great squad 😉
I think this is bit out of context. Emi was doing great at Aresel in the last year when he got chances & it was bad decision to sell him then. If Arsenal had kept him then on that form Arsenal would have done slightly better & probably would have been in Europe & there was no need to buy Ramsdale.
But Ramsdale is definitely doing great and so far proved better than Leno. So yes with him you may not miss Emi but what is the logic is selling Emi for £20 M and buying Ramsdale for £25M when both are almost same ?
And in between spend few more millions on other two temporary keepers
at least one…me