Arsenal: Emi Martinez Clearly Petr Cech’s Successor

Arsenal fans were elated when they heard that Hector Bellerin had signed a new long-term  contract, however, Emi Martinez also put pen to paper on a new deal recently, and considering the kind words of Arsene Wenger, we should expect to see a lot more of Martinez in the near future.

Arsene Wenger is renowned for his blind faith in young players, and it has served him well over the years. Hector Bellerin has undoubtedly been a beneficiary of this blind faith and he has subsequently established himself as one of the premier right backs in world football.

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But let us not forget that Bellerin had a shaky start to his Arsenal career. Highly rated, he made his full professional debut against one of the best attacking teams in Europe in the shape of Borussia Dortmund. Although he didn’t face off against Marco Reus, Henrikh Mkhitaryan was a handful, constantly cutting inside and causing problems.

This is what Bellerin had to say of the occasion;

“Dortmund is one of the biggest stages in Europe and I made my full professional debut with Arsenal there. It was a hard game and we didn’t have our best performance. It was the hardest game I could possibly play. Obviously things are difficult, but the atmosphere and it being a Champions League game, and my first start, made it a really big game”.

The beginning of Hector Bellerin’s Arsenal career is reminiscent to that of Emi Martinez’s – it was only his second Arsenal appearance when the Gunners miraculously beat Reading 7-5 to reach the last eight of the League Cup back in 2012. If you watch the highlights of that phenomenal game, you’d see that Martinez hardly covered himself in glory.

Since then, Martinez has been sent out on loan to no fewer than 4 clubs – Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers – and he has been highly applauded everywhere he has been.

There is no chance of Martinez moving ahead of both Petr Cech and David Ospina in the pecking order at the Emirates, but it was interesting reading what Arsene Wenger had to say in reaction to Martinez signing a new long-term contract last month;

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“If you look at him, I personally see all the top qualities that a goalkeeper needs. He has the stature, he has the passion, he has the technical quality, he has the decision-making, he has huge power and he’s not frightened of anything”.

“I remember a game at Anderlecht in the Champions League – it was a decisive game where he saved us. In the League Cup, every time he plays, he does extremely well. I am very happy that he committed, because I think he is the future goalkeeper at this club”.

High praise indeed. Wenger had similar admiration for Wojciech Szczesny back in 2010, therefore Martinez musn’t get complacent if he has aspirations to replace Petr Cech as Arsenal’s number one goalkeeper. For now, he needs to bide his time.

Arsenal have reportedly been tracking Jan Oblak of Atletico Madrid recently, but if I know Arsene Wenger at all, if he believes Martinez is the future at goalkeeper, the likelihood of him purchasing anyone to change that notion is slim, atleast for the time being anyway.

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Arsenal are well set at the goalkeeper position in both the short-term and seemingly the long-term as well. Petr Cech is the unquestioned starter, David Ospina is his backup and Emi Martinez is supposedly the future. However, let us not forget about Wojciech Szczesny just yet either. Despite the fact that he joined Roma on loan again – this time with a view to a permanent deal – I’d like to think that his future at Arsenal is far from resolved.