‘He’s a monster’ – David James says Mikel Arteta made mistake selling Arsenal star

David James believes Arsenal made a mistake (Picture: Getty)

David James believes Mikel Arteta made a mistake selling ‘monster’ Emiliano Martinez and says he would be ‘perfect’ for the current Arsenal team.

Argentina World Cup winner Martinez spent almost a decade in Arsenal’s first-team but was restricted to just 38 appearances as he lost the battle to become the club’s No. 1.

Martinez had loan spells at several EFL clubs during his time in north London and was finally sold to Aston Villa in 2020 for £17m.

Arteta decided Bernd Leno would be his first-choice goalkeeper for that season but would soon replace the Germany international with £30m signing Aaron Ramsdale.

Ramsdale initially impressed at the Emirates Stadium, proving his doubters wrong following a switch from relegated Sheffield United, but also found himself on the sidelines when Arteta sanctioned Arsenal’s move for current No. 1 David Raya.

Raya has established himself as one of the best shot-stoppers in the Premier League since joining Arsenal but ex-England goalkeeper James still believes it was a mistake to sell Martinez.

Martinez is also regarded as one of the best in the business having flourished at Aston Villa – now a Champions League club – and starring in Argentina’s World Cup win in Qatar.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta (Picture: Getty)

‘It’s interesting when you look at Premier League goalkeepers over a number of years now, there’s not many characters,’ James said on the Seaman Says podcast with Betway. ‘Prior to that there were more characters for whatever reason.

‘He [Emiliano Martinez] has character, everything about him is character, he’s a big-game player. He wants to be in the biggest games.

‘When you look at the Raya and Ramsdale situation at Arsenal and obviously Martinez was allowed to go because of Bernd Leno, who’s a decent goalkeeper.

‘But I think Martinez would have been the perfect goalkeeper for Arsenal right now. I think he’s a monster.

Emiliano Martinez in action for Aston Villa (Picture: Getty)

‘Weirdly there’s not a lot of goalkeepers in the Premier League these days who are capable of getting to the top corner.’

Meanwhile, Peter Schmeichel – widely considered one of the best goalkeepers in Premier League history – believes Martinez’s form at Aston Villa has proven Arsenal boss Arteta wrong.

‘Martinez, I think he has proven Arsenal wrong, for sure,’ Schmeichel said on the Stick to Football podcast. ‘I think he’s a big personality and I think he’s helping that team [Villa] a lot.

‘Will he be able to do the job at Man City? I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t know. But he’s a winner, obviously a World Cup winner, he’s just won the Copa [America]. So he’s getting there as well.’

Arsenal boasted the best defensive record in the Premier League last season and have conceded just six goals so far this term.

The Gunners, attempting to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004, came from behind to beat Southampton 3-1 on Saturday.

Assessing his side’s performance, Arteta said: ‘The start was exceptional, the dominance, the chances. It was unbelievable not to go one, two, three goals up.

‘We conceded the goal and then it was game on. I thought the team reacted with a lot of authority and I am happy the team can react like this – but not happy after the chances we had that we had to go through that.

‘The substitutes changed the energy and also the feel in the crowd. We won in the end and I think we deserved it.

‘The way we started was phenomenal but we didn’t get our reward. We had a difficult context at 1-0 but we did it.’

Ex-Arsenal star Ramsdale was in goal for the Saints following his £25m move to St Mary’s over the summer. His Southampton side are currently second from bottom with just one point from seven games.

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