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Emery sternly criticised Martinez' decision making in the match against Arsenal
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has said that he was disappointed and embarrassed by Emiliano Martinez’ decision to gift Arsenal a fourth goal in their 4-2 Premier League loss by deciding on his own to go up for a corner and try to score against his former club.
Martinez gifted his former side a goal
Standing at 6’5”, Martinez thought it was a good idea to enter the Arsenal penalty box for a late Aston Villa corner kick with the score at 3-2 to the Gunners, but got caught out by a counterattack that resulted in Arsenal’s fourth goal.
Martinez was trying to make up for an earlier own goal that gave Arsenal the lead late in the game but was left red-faced as Gabriel Martinelli was left with an open goal to compound Aston Villa and Martinez’ misery.
The Arsenal forward added insult to injury by celebrating before scoring the goal which made Emery furious in his post-match press conference.
Emery was embarrassed by Martinez' gift to Arsenal
Speaking to journalists after the game, the ex-Arsenal and Villarreal manager fumed as he assured those listening that he never asked Martinez to go up for the corner as he has never seen the point in a goalkeeper doing so.
He said, "I have never told my goalkeeper to go and score one goal in the 90th minute, because maybe – and I don’t know the data – maybe one goal in 100, maybe 20 times they [the opponents] are doing a counter transition and they are scoring 10 goals.
"Today, it happened. And for me it’s not being very smart, not being very consistent in how we want to play, how we want to compete. We can play, we can lose 2-3, but 2-4? It’s not a good result."
He condemned Martinez’ actions further saying, "Today I am very disappointed and it is embarrassing for me, the last goal. Because I never told my goalkeeper to go to a corner to score a goal. It is not the spirit, we have to keep our mind clear and smart.”
Aston Villa’s loss to Arsenal was their third defeat in a row in the Premier League and it is easy to see why Emery may have gotten rather testy in his criticism of his goalkeeper, especially after a very avoidable error.
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