Emi Martinez says the secret to winning yesterday’s pre-season penalty shootout victory over Bayern Munich was simple guesswork.
The Argentine keeper saved from David Alaba and Juan Bernat and came close to stopping Kingsley Coman’s effort having only been on the field of play for 19 minutes of the friendly.
“I guess to be honest,” said Martinez when asked about his shootout tactics.
“Since I was a kid, I’ve never lost on a penalty shoot-out. I keep building my luck in penalties.
“That’s what we train so hard for, extra-time. Goalkeepers always start early and finish late. The boss said that I had 20 or 25 minutes to play in this game, and I tried to do my best. It worked.
“I saved two penalties at the end and that was pretty incredible, but I think everyone played a part in this game.”
Given his record is so good, Arseblog News is more than happy for Martinez to continue guessing. We’re pretty sure Petr Cech dived the wrong way for every one of the 156 penalties we conceded last year.
Maybe Jens might have a word with our veteran stopper. After all, he famously saved Juan Roman Riquelme’s spot-kick in the dying seconds of the Champions League semi-final in 2006 and went on to use a ‘cheat sheet’ when Germany overcame Argentina on penalties in the 2006 World Cup quarter-final showdown. His scribbled note ended up being auctioned off for charity and raised over €1 million!
well he looks a safer bet than mannone and almunia..
Manone was always quite decent when played. Almunia was a disaster.
Almunia was a very good goal keeper rather excellent thats why he replaced Jens Lehman when he started making mistakes and did well. Then his family member faced some tragedy and he lost his confidence and was never the same.
Confidence is as much important in a goal keeper as is required for a striker…
I am sorry, but that is borderline delusion. Almunia was never an excellent goal keeper, in fact, he wasn’t even a good goal keeper. He was truly terrible, I would go as far as to say he was one of the worst professional footballers I have seen at the club ever. Some of the mistakes he used to make were beyond comprehension at a Saturday league level, let alone playing in the Premier League for Arsenal football club. And the reason why he took over from Jens was solely down for two reasons: 1. We didn’t have the money at… Read more »
I don’t understand “truly terrible” here. He was a good keeper, nothing more, nothing less. Let’s not resort to that kind of unfair hyperbole. Truly terrible…please.
Of course we could’ve purchased a top goalkeeper, remember prices for keepers weren’t very high back then either (minus buffon). Almunia wouldn’t have played the matches he did for Arsenal if he wasn’t a very good goalkeeper.
Wasn’t Jens’ cheat sheet like a hoax as in it was like his shopping list or something but gave his opponents the impression that he did have info he was reading and therefore unsettled them. Genius.
Don’t you love when you start reading a sentence as a question but there’s no question mark at the end.
You could tell from Wenger’s wry smile when asked about Martinez after the Bayern game that he thinks he has a very special player. Let’s hope he’s right about this one. Still feels crazy to me but then I don’t see what goes on in training sessions. With Ospina seemingly on his way, it surely won’t be too long until we find out just what kind of a goalkeeper Emi is.
He may be special, and he may be the only keeper on our books who can save a penalty, but his inexperience showed in the Sydney game when he picked up Ramsey’s pass!
I like him, though. He’s an extremely calm, solid presence, and defenders will like having him there. That’s important.
Except that it was Ospina who picked up the pass!
Wenger then decide to replace Ospina by Martinez, who then had to organise team against the indirect free kick.
Share the luck with Cech mate! Also http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/40665802 is an interesting read comparing Lacazette Morata and Lukaku and don’t forget to vote for Lacazette.
Given that Morata is a similar fee to Lac, I’d go with Morata. And Lukaku has done it in the prem for a few years now. Not saying Lac will flop but he’s certainly the least established and the biggest gamble. It would appear we’ve all got the striker we deserve.
I’ll correct you: you’re wrong.
Pfft. A former Juve top scorer and champions league winner who is younger by three years. And a player who consistently scores a fuck load in the prem, even at a pretty shitty club. And also 3 years younger. I hate the way delusional is thrown about in these comment sections. But you’re delusional if you think Lac is the best signing here. Ask any Chelsea or United fan if they want to swap…
Man, look at those shot conversions and minutes per goal. Lukaku is the worst of the three (which doesn’t mean he’s a bad player, of course).
Comparatively, at £46m, Arsenal absolutely got the best deal.
And yet, he still isn’t rated by many. Shame, considering he always keeps his head down, has a great work rate, and is Johnny at the ready when needed. I won’t forget his performance against BvB when he was thrown into the deep end at the last moment, coming away with a clean sheet. I hope he replaces Ospina, in my opinion – he really deserves the chance.
Looks as though Arsene see’s him as our No1 once Cech leaves/retires. Must see something in him for Szczesny to be sold. Also unrelated to Martinez but surely a keeper with the most clean sheets in Serie A should demand a higher fee than the reported £10-13 million. I know he only had a year left on his contract but when you see Bravo cost Man City £17mil..
You know how at right the end of ET the manager will bring on someone who’s good at scoring penalties? Can we anticipate bringing Emi on for Cech at the end of the Europa/FA/Beazer Home’s Cup final?
I thought the little bugger flew home at the end of ET?
Career stats:
Martinez – 12 penalties faced (33.3% success rate)
Cech – 68 penalties faced (23.5% success rate)
The last pen Cech saved was in Oct 2014. 0/11 saved in an Arsenal shirt.
Cechs penalty saving abilities are on a serious decline.
Are penalty shootouts a young keepers games?
well, no. Given Seaman was good at saving penalties well into his 30s, as was Lehman.
I appreciate Arseblog linking to the Lehmann scribbled note story at the end – a good read!
He dives to his left
He dives to his right
That boy Martinez
Makes Bayern look shite
Am i the only one who thinks Cech misses it on purpose to pull out tricks on big occasions.
Yes, you are the only one who thinks so.
We’ve got an ok record in shootouts. Apparantly according to the Heil (not getting a link from me to that cuntfest sorty) we’ve won 11 of our 18 shootouts since they began in 70/71
That’s why we are the Arsenal, gunners: we most often “gun them down in shootouts”
Me neither.
Although I’ve never played in goal, or been in a penalty shootout, so there’s that to consider.