One of the good things about supporting a club like Arsenal is that despite the fact that the team endured a bad result in the weekend, there’s so much football to be played across several competitions and everyone would be hoping for a more favorable result next time out. The Gunners would take their minds of their wretched Premier League form to focus on an all-important Champions League fixture against Anderlecht and with Wojciech Szczesny suspended following his unfortunate red card against Galatasaray, David Ospina was odds on to make his third appearance against the Belgian outfit.
However, the Mirror reports that the Colombian shot stopper will be ruled out of the Anderlecht game which means that Emiliano Martinez would get his Champions League debut on Wednesday night. I’d reckon that Ospina would be absolutely gutted as his chances of getting regular game time have been few and far between. Despite joining the club in July, he had to wait till September to get his debut for his new team and his second appearance came after a month.
Ospina has shown glimpses of his quality in the games he has played thus far and he’s looking like a dependable deputy for Szczesny.
Martinez has been at the club since 2010 but he had to wait for two more years to make his competitive debut in English football when he played in Oxford United’s win over Port Vale. A few months later, he made his Arsenal debut in the 6-1 drubbing of Coventry City in the Capital One Cup. With Arsenal progressing to the next round against Reading, Martinez had a shocking time in goal against the Gunners ran out as 7-5 winners in one of the most enthralling games I’ve ever watched.
Some of the goals Martinez conceded on the night could have been avoided but goalkeeping is a position where a player gets better with age, so many fans gave him the benefit of doubt and are always quick to play the ‘inexperienced’ and ‘youth’ card.
Last season, Martinez made an emergency loan move to Sheffield Wednesday and he notched up 11 appearances for the lower league outfit as well as displacing first-choice goalie, Chris Kirkland, in the process. The young Argentine got some preseason games under his belt for the Gunners and he began the campaign as the Gunners’ third choice goalie this season.With Szczesny out due to suspension and Ospina out with an injury, Martinez would have another chance to prove his worth to the manager, his teammates and most importantly, the fans.
The Argentine goalie has spoken with confidence about his test coming up,
“I’ve been working on being more commanding in the box. I didn’t have any experience before and I went to the Championship, which is all about crosses and making the right decision. I learnt a lot because I played nearly 20 games so I’m a completely different keeper now. I was working really hard and I played really well in quite a few wins and gained a lot of experience.
“I’ve been working with Wojciech for nearly four years already. Since I came to Arsenal I’ve been working with him.”
Arsene Wenger is a manager that has given youngsters chanced to show their talent on the pitch and this season, a considerable amount of youngsters have featured this campaign. We can only hope that Martinez is offered enough protection from his defenders and for his sake, I hope he has a great game.
More on the Anderlecht game tomorrow.
Sayonara.
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