Peter Schmeichel claims former Arsenal player has disproved Mikel Arteta's judgment

Peter Schmeichel has expressed his belief that Emi Martinez has shown Arsenal and Mikel Arteta that they made a mistake in letting him go to Aston Villa.

Martinez joined Arsenal in 2010 but was never able to secure his status as the club’s first-choice goalkeeper .

The 32-year-old ended up being sold to Aston Villa in a £20 million deal in 2020 and has since established himself as one of the world’s best goalkeepers.

Since leaving Arsenal, Martinez has won the World Cup and the Copa America twice with Argentina, while he has also been a solid performer at Villa in the Premier League.

‘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.’

Schmeichel also praised David Raya for his start to the season with Arsenal and feels the Spaniard’s command of his penalty area when dealing with high balls into the box has helped his teammates.

‘The thing is, that mentality, not a lot of goalkeepers are doing that,’ Schmeichel said.

‘But he does that, which I think he’s brilliant, he’s coming out in a period of the game, it’s fantastic if he does, but there are so many people in front of him, when you come out you’re looking at the ball, I [the goalkeeper] might run into the defender and then the goal’s empty, you think about that.

‘The time wasting, I don’t like that bit of it, but he really, really kept his team in it [against Manchester City]. He took the sting out of it.’

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