Surely Martinez has proved even more of a point now!
It was another battle at the Emirates on the weekend, and although we lost, I know eyes were clearly on the battle of Leno v Martinez. And who came out on top? Of course, Martinez did, as many Arsenal fans thought he would!
With the way our boys have failed to score more than one goal in their recent run of Premier League games, Martinez was the last keeper they would have wanted to come up against with the lack of goals they have been scoring. Of course if you don’t create chances then you won’t trouble the goalkeeper and Arsenal hardly tested Martinez or the Aston Villa back line, yet Villa, who clearly singled Leno out as a weak link in our team, were all over him. When you know a keeper is a weak link then you have every right to exploit him and they did just that from start to finish.
Falling to a 3-0 loss, the back line and the keeper were all to blame, as well as the rest of the team, for failing to score or even create and when you cannot create chances you are always going to be at risk of losing games.
Villa are a good side there is no doubt about that, for this season at least, but Arsenal should have done better and yet again they fell at the final hurdle. Yet again the goals eluded them and yet again Leno conceded three and Martinez kept a clean sheet.
Leno is a good shot stopper and has immense potential under the tight coaching, but he is not an all-round goalkeeper. He struggles to play out from he back, he is lacking in confidence, and lets put it this way he is just not the same as when he first arrived. When a keeper lacks confidence that resonates onto the rest of the team and that was the case against Villa.
We cannot turn back time and bring Martinez back unfortunately. But we have to back Leno as that is what we have at our disposal right now. But if he continues to be inconsistent and losing us games then it will be even harder to stand by him as time goes on.
At least one of our players, albeit ex-players will be resting easy after his performance and being called up to the international side for the upcoming games, but it is just a shame it wasn’t Leno and where he goes from here only Arteta knows!
Shenel Osman