Premier League legend David James claims that Arsenal made a mistake in selling one player under Mikel Arteta.
With 572 appearances, James has played the fifth most amount of games in Premier League history, turning out for the likes of played for Liverpool, Aston Villa, West Ham United, Manchester City and Portsmouth during an 18-year top-flight career.
For James, there’s a distinct lack of characters within the Premier League nowadays, with the former goalkeeper highlighting how this has potentially hurt Arsenal in their bid for glory under Arteta.
Premier League lacking ‘characters’
When discussing the lack of characters, James suggests that Arsenal’s decision to sell Emi Martinez to Aston Villa in 2020 has proved a costly error for the Gunners, with the Argentine’s personality essential for any successful side.
“It’s interesting, when you look at Premier League goalkeepers, I would say over a number of years now – five, 10 years or whatever – there’s not many characters,” James said on the Seaman Says podcast via Betway. “Whereas if you go prior to that, there were characters around in the game for whatever reason.
“I think it was conditioned out of goalkeepers. Kind of like: ‘I’ve just made a mistake, but you don’t know because you’re not allowed to see it.’
“[Emi Martinez] has character. Everything about him is character. He’s a big, big game player, but it’s almost like he wants to be in the biggest game. We look at Raya’s situation at Arsenal, the Ramsdale situation at Arsenal, and the fact that Martinez was allowed to go because of Bernd Leno. Leno’s a decent goalkeeper, but doesn’t necessarily have character. Martinez would have been the perfect goalkeeper, I think, for Arsenal right now.”
The most obvious example of Martinez’s character that James is talking about is his gamesmanship tactics used during the 2022 World Cup final against France. James highlights something more recent, though, discussing the 32-year-old’s physicality and confidence as a goalkeeper.
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“I think he’s a monster, in the sense that if the ball is in the air he will come for it,” James added. “There was the free kick from Bruno Fernandes [against Manchester United last weekend], even though he didn’t have to save it, he was there. There’s not many ‘keepers that I see in the Premier League now who are capable of getting to the top corner, weirdly. Just think about the last time you saw a top corner save.
“I’ve had this discussion with goalie coaches. The pitches are hard, and I think because the pitch is so hard, you don’t get the purchase that you would have done on a softer pitch to be able to really explode. You’re more likely to slip, so you end up diving slightly differently.
“It used to be quite common, a goalie would spring along, bang, bang, top corner. Now the shot that just goes past the top corner, you’re thinking the keeper’s not ever getting there. Martinez will get there because he can do it.”
