Arsenal have confirmed that Emiliano Martinez has committed his future to the club after penning a new long-term deal.
The 24-year-old has made 10 appearances for the first team since his debut in 2012 and is currently the club’s third choice stopper behind David Ospina and Petr Cech.
Martinez impressed on loan at Wolves last season having already undertaken stints at Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United.
This term, the Argentine has kept two clean sheets in Arsenal’s EFL Cup victories over Nottingham Forest and Reading and will play in goal in Tuesday’s quarter-final when Southampton visit the Emirates.
Speaking about his new deal, Martinez told Arsenal Player, “It feels amazing to be honest. I’ve been here for six or seven years already and to have the opportunity to sign a new deal is a great achievement for me and my family.
“This is a big step for me, signing a new deal for Arsenal, training every day with big goalkeepers, big players and I feel like I’m one of them now. I really want to reach the top level.
“Arsenal means everything to me. I grew up here, I learnt English here and I’ve got everything in the UK. I love this club and I want to be the No 1 goalkeeper here for many years.”
Martinez is the second player in quick succession to sign a new contract at the Emirates. Last week Hector Bellerin was forced to spend three days on social media telling everybody that he too has signed.
It’ll now be interesting to see what the club decides to do with Wojciech Szczesny at the end of the season.
He’s a keeper!!
Szeems like we’ll be szaying szayonara to szcz.
Good on Martinez for signing the extension- he seems to have the right attitude and can learn a lot in his understudy role to two of the best keepers in the league.
Wow! Am i the only one who has completely forgotten about Woijech? For a club that used to get slaughtered for having calamitous goalies (Almunia, Fab, young Szczesny) just a few years ago…we are fucking blessed with a seriously fine crop of goalies now.
young szczesny was never calamitous
like, not to be contrarian but I feel like there’s sometimes a bit of revisionism where szcz is concerned
100% agree Ausgunner. Personally, I don’t think Ospina has ever looked as good as Ches did at his best.(2013-14 he was absolutely fantastic)
The smoking thing turned people against him & as a result he was deemed shit & Ospina amazing. Understandable but wrong imo.
Best Seasons for Arsenal Ospina Saves to Goals ratio 2014/15 EPL – 18 Appearances – 3.18 Cech Saves to Goals Ratio 2015/16 EPL – 34 Appearances – 2.68 Szsezny Saves to Goals Ratio 2015/16 EPL – 37 Appearances – 1.95 So Ospina in his best season saved the ball over 3 times for every goal he conceeded Cech saved less than 3 goals per concession and Szsezny saved less than 2 goals per concession – He may not look as good a szsezny but he absolutely bossed him in the stats. Szsez’s “Absolutely fantastic” wasnt a patch on Ospina’s ok-ness.… Read more »
Fair enough Double98. I certainly don’t think stats are lies but I do think people look at them too simplistically these days… Did Ospina have to make more saves as a result of not dominating his area ?(something I believe he’s very weak on) It also assumes that every save is a ‘good’ save. e.g. the 3-3 draw at West Ham last season. In the 2nd half, when the last thing we needed was to give them more corners & increase the pressure, Ospina gave away 2 in quick succession with saves where I think he could have done much… Read more »
Amazing to have 2 worldclass keeper and this relatively young and talented lad
and then don’t forget about sczcesny .. it will be tough for him to compete with Ospina and Cech, but still think he has the potential to be great
Great times ahead of us regarding the goalkeeper spot
Even though some plans might already be on the table, the actual discussion on goalkeeper plans won’t start until June 2017. But when it does start, oh boy.
Barca is the latest club to show two top goalkeepers can share the time between them for only so long.
Almost feels like there is no way back for Szczesny now.
Carling Cup is next Wednesday
We’ve always had ace goalkeepers.
Missing a /s at the end?
I remember having a fucking heart attack every time the opposition crossed anywhere near the box in the days of Almunia and Fabianski. The crop between Jens leaving and Petr arriving were phenomenal on some days, fucking dire on others, but on the whole never left me feeling 100% confident.
Well not ALWAYS
Bit harsh on Stuart Taylor and Richard Wright there.
Happy for the young Argentine. He knows his role and he does at least have time on his side.
As for Shez, I haven’t followed him in Roma but saw that Fabianski is still Poland #1 despite Swans having a poor season, so maybe best if Shez makes a clean break. He’ll always be a Gooner at heart.
Fabianski had developed into a more sold keeper than Szc. I had high hopes for the latter but he just stopped improving and his attitude got a bit wrong. Fab has been great for Swansea and Szc has been okay for Roma but still has that unpredictable streak that you just can’t have in a top keeper.
I think Szczesny’s only option is to invest in some new goalkeepers gloves…..
http://us.123rf.com/450wm/alexeyzet/alexeyzet1007/alexeyzet100700003/7396660-goalkeeper-in-big-gloves-on-gate.jpg