Super Ross Barkley

Absolutely class goalkeeper. Commands his box and never stops talking to our defence who have been superb so far this season. A match made in heaven right now.

With Alisson out injured and Ederson/De Gea not at their previous high levels, I don’t think it’s wild to suggest Villa have the best GK in the league right now

Lets ignore the absolute fack up that should have given Fulham a point bar a completely off the ball incident VAR caught.

Still a bit surprised how well they’ve started.Good team though, grealish, Martinez, McGinn, Mings, Barkley are all really decent players..

Who is villa’s GK?

Emi instils confidence in the back four, something lack over a number of seasons, Mings and Konsa especially are two different players this season

Bad decision by Arsenal to sell Martinez. Not saying Leno is bad but Martinez is a top keeper.

Emi catching and command in and around the box is second to none.

Still annoyed we sold him

The question with Martinez is did we sell him because we needed the money to reinvest or was it a case his contract was nearly up. If its the second reason then the club have made a massive mistake. I'm sure if he had been told you are the club's number one its up to you to keep performing to hold down the spot he would of been happy with that. Leno will have some great games and he won't drop many clangers but like yesterday there will be a number of occasions where he should do better. Martinez doesn't seem to have those issues he just consistent which is what we need.

This is going to age well

Leno already cost us with his dog chit gk skills. Parrying garbage shots against Liverpool and City cost us points already.

I've always been a big supporter of Leno but I did have a nagging feeling that in certain key areas of the goalkeeping game Martinez was a little stronger based on the small sample size.

The one that doesn't seem to have been mentioned much is handling. Often, the ball would stick to Martinez's hands like glue, similar types of shots Leno parries and so far this season that has cost us a couple of goals.

Still rate Leno though, he's 28 now which is still fairly young for a goal keeper, hopefully he can kick on and improve working with the goalkeeping coach on those weaknesses in his game, we'll see.

We also need this full season with both keepers playing regularly for a final verdict on whether it was a good or bad decision to sell. Right now though, like the Willian signing, it's not looking great.

It's still early. This is going to be a crazy season. In my opinion, teams with tightest defence and commanding GKs will be among top 4. Not saying Villa will be one of them but they could get top 6. Who knows. With no fans and most teams including the top sides can't keep clean sheets, anything is possible.

I remember last season I said Villa were short of a good striker and a good keeper to be a top team. Few laughed at me. They have now a balance team, but bench is not so good. I like their new right back they bought from Forest, Matty Cash.

Arsenal had to sell one of their Keepers. Both are top keepers. But at the moment Martinez is full of confidence and calm while Leno is not.

Wait until Friday 😉

Emi has been very lucky this season. Dropped a couple of clangers and had to be saved by an off the ball foul and a bad miss.

But I guess a lucky keeper is something very useful.

Think your keeper will be my next FF purchase

It should be noted that Arsenal have the second best defensive record in the PL, and have played the best two teams, and most attacking, away already.

Although facts like that don't really help the anti-Leno brigades case.

What anti Leno brigade? I think most Arsenal fans know he’s a top keeper, just like all Arsenal fans (although some may not want to admit it) know that selling Emi was a big mistake.

Leno has made 2 costly errors against Liverpool and City, that you wonder would have happened if Emi was in goal.

comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 15 minutes ago
It should be noted that Arsenal have the second best defensive record in the PL, and have played the best two teams, and most attacking, away already.

Although facts like that don't really help the anti-Leno brigades case.
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It doesn't matter to them now, Martinez has somehow turned into a mix of Neuer/Banks/Seamen, and Leno is chit . Arteta clearly wants keepers that can use their feet as well as hands, and i'm guessing when he and his team weighed it all up, Leno was the one that is better overall in their opinion.

If it was a decision made on ability then he’s made a horrible mistake

It was pretty obvious we needed £20m for some reason. We almost sold AMN then the interest in Emi firmed up. Knowing we couldn't satisfy the demands of 2 top 'keepers, it became the obvious thing to do - sell Emi.

There was no market for Leno, making selling Emi the only option.

Martinez is a much better goalkeeper than Leno.
He is better with his feet, command his box and he catches the ball instead of punching like Leno does.

I reckon if Leno had been out all season and we had a season with Martinez, we'd have kept him. I reckon Arsenal decided to keep faith in Leno as he had done it longer for us.

I reckon if Leno had been out all season and we had a season with Martinez, we'd have kept him.
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Maybe, but that could have worked the other way too, we may have seen Martinez's faults, rather than this great 12 or so game run at the end of the season, and elevated him to the best in the PL. We'll see by the end of this season.