We aim to pick out players and cut through the noise to give analytical, objective insight with the latest focus on Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
- Age: 30
- Position: Goalkeeper
- Club: Aston Villa
- Country: Argentina
A key feature in an Aston Villa side that has anchored itself securely in mid-table in the Premier League, Emiliano Martinez is reportedly the subject of interest from Tottenham, who are eyeing up potential replacements for Hugo Lloris.
Having made a name for himself at Arsenal - largely as a back-up option - before his move to the West Midlands, Martinez certainly has elite pedigree. But can he cut it as the main man at a top club?
Having played all but two of Villa's league games, the World Cup winner is indisputably a mainstay of Unai Emery's side and is often acknowledged as having played a starring role in his team's surge away from the drop zone - indeed, Villa conceded seven goals in the two matches he missed.
And the numbers suggest that this praise might just be warranted.
No goalkeeper has stopped more crosses than the Argentine this season; Martinez has laid claim to 13.3% of the wide balls he has faced, putting him far ahead of nearest challengers David Raya (9.7%) and Ederson (9.0%).
That being said, while this dominance of his penalty area may look good on highlight reels and is unlikely to go unnoticed by supporters, it takes more than punched crosses to make an elite goalkeeper.
The rest of his statistics - particularly on the core goalkeeping metric of psxG (post-shot expected goals) - are, at best, unremarkable.
Data suggests that the Villa man should have conceded 25.5 goals so far this term, compared to an actual figure of 32 (though four of those were own goals and one a penalty, none of which count towards this statistic).
Hence Martinez's psxG minus goals allowed stands at -1.5 for 2022/23, or marginally below average.
In itself, this may mean a slight dip in form that should correct itself, but if we look back over the past three seasons - tying in with when the Argentine began to feature regularly for Arsenal - we can see an average of -1.2.
Though far from catastrophic, these figures do not symbolise a goalkeeper consistently outperforming the expected - and what's more, Hugo Lloris has managed a return of just -0.1 over the same timeframe.
While Martinez remains a steady pair of hands, questions remain over whether he has the credentials to be a number one at an elite club.
