Arsenal: Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez faces biggest season yet

Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has been with the club for eight years but has yet to make his mark on the first team. What’s going on with him?

There must be some level of trust and confidence in goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. He has been with Arsenal for the majority of his professional career. The club have held on to him for so long, developing his talent and keeping him on the wage bill. Last season’s loan spell to La Liga side Getafe is testament that other top-tier clubs think he can play.

His greatest barrier to first team minutes has always been the guys in front of him. His eight seasons at the club have been spent behind the Polish duo of Wojciech Szczęsny and Łukasz Fabiański. Then Szczęsny and Colombian No. 1 David Ospina. Then Premier League legend Petr Cech and Ospina. And now Cech and new Gunner Bernd Leno.

Having two hugely-experienced keepers on the roster pose a barrier to any young keeper. And that’s exactly where Martinez finds himself yet again. Which means another spell away from the Emirates. Or at best, a season on the bench as the backup to the backup.

We’ve seen him make a few first team cameos. Some quick digging into the archives shows that Martinez has appeared in the Champions League for Arsenal — albeit in a couple of emergency situations. He even has a couple of Premier League clean sheets to his name.

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But he has also suffered through a few appearances that are memorable for the wrong reasons. Remember the legendary 7-5 match against Reading in the then Capital One Cup in 2012? That was Emi Martinez letting four goals through before halftime. Of course, it was a mixed bag squad and ended with Marouane Chamakh’s greatest ever highlight as a Gunner, so maybe it’s not the best example.

But on the flip side, Martinez is six months younger than Leno. At 25 years old, he still has time to grow into his peak goalkeeping years. And the fact that he has been at the club since 2010 means that the club see enough in him to invest in his career. By now, he is Arsenal through and through. Also, it seems the new boss, Unai Emery, has taken a bit of a liking to him.

We haven’t seen enough from Emiliano Martinez to demand he get a break. But we haven’t seen him perform terribly either. We just haven’t seen him. Maybe this is his year under Emery.

The League Cup, early rounds of the FA Cup or possibly the Europa League could offer us a peek at a talent the club have been developing all these years. But if he does go out for another loan spell, let’s hope it’s not the last we see of him.