Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has criticised goalkeeper Emi Martinez for leaving his box to go up for a corner in Saturday’s clash against Arsenal.
Aston Villa was 3-2 down when Martinez decided to go to Arsenal’s box to try to covert the corner kick. Arsenal was able to win possession and the subsequent counter-attack allowed Gabriel Martinelli to roll the ball into an open goal to secure a 4-2 win.
Commenting on Martinez’s decision to go to the box, Emery said;
“Our game plan is, of course, quality really and on the pitch they have to take the decision. He decided in the last action to go to the corner offensively, but I don’t like it. But I told him nothing, before or after because in all my career I have never told our goalkeepers to do it and the statistical data is going against the teams that are going with the goalkeeper more than scoring any goals.”