Unai Emery has been left furious with Emi Martinez following Arsenal’s dramatic win over Aston Villa. The 30-year-old shot-stopper was centre of attention at Villa Park for all the wrong reasons as his former side waltzed away 4-2 victors after netting twice late into injury time.
Unai Emery 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.”
Then, speaking to BBC Sport,
Unai Emery added: “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. We have to progress in the way that we are working. We have to take confidence of course, but sometimes making mistakes you have to improve. We were very happy with how the team worked and prepared for the match. But then on the pitch after scoring first we were thinking when will the match finish. You have to play 90 minutes. I never told my goalkeeper to do it. But today he decided it was his decision. He was not doing something about my decision because I didn’t tell him, but now he knows. He knows now.”
