Emiliano Martinez Closes In On Chelsea Move After Robert Sanchez Error

Six weeks ago, Emiliano Martinez was Aston Villa’s captain and undisputed first choice. Now he is closing in on a move to Chelsea, the outcome of a goalkeeper shuffle that has consumed Stamford Bridge from the moment Robert Sanchez made a mistake at Fulham on Monday.

Chelsea have agreed a £7.5m fee with Villa to sign the Argentina international, and Martinez travelled to London to undergo a medical before putting pen to paper on a two-year contract with the option of a third. The transfer had not been officially completed by either club at the time of writing, but the framework of the deal, right down to the length of his new contract, is already in place.

Squeezed out by a £30m arrival

Martinez needed a new club after Villa signed Zion Suzuki from Parma for close to £30m, a deal that made clear the Japan international was being lined up as the club’s long-term number one. Unai Emery’s side had shown patience with the situation through the early weeks of pre-season, but the arrival of Suzuki settled the matter.

Juventus had also shown interest in Martinez earlier in the window, but the Italian club instead moved for Guglielmo Vicario from Tottenham, closing off what had looked like his most likely route out of England. Chelsea’s late move filled the gap left by that switch.

Sanchez’s Fulham error opens the door

Sky Sports News reported that Chelsea were considering a late move for Martinez after Robert Sanchez came under criticism for an error in Monday’s win at Fulham. Sanchez had been expected to be Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper again this season, but his performances have not always been convincing, and the mistake against Fulham reopened a debate that had followed him for much of the previous campaign.

The deal arrives after Chelsea spent much of the window denying they were in the market for an experienced goalkeeper. The Blues came close to signing Mike Maignan from AC Milan last summer but could not agree a fee, and the pursuit of Martinez now suggests that need went unresolved rather than forgotten.

A crowded goalkeeping department

Martinez’s arrival raises immediate questions over whether both Sanchez and Mike Penders will remain at Stamford Bridge for the rest of the season. Penders spent last season on loan at Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg and started Chelsea’s Carabao Cup tie against Luton on Thursday night, the same evening Sanchez started in the Premier League win over Fulham.

Whether Chelsea need three senior goalkeepers at all is debatable given they are not competing in Europe this season, and Penders has only just returned from his loan spell in France looking to establish himself. Martinez’s signing does not resolve that question so much as add another name to a goalkeeping department that already had more competition for places than minutes to share around.

Merson: one of the best in the world

Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson backed the move, describing Martinez as one of the sport’s elite shot-stoppers even with his reputation for confrontation with opponents. “Martinez is available and he can be hard work sometimes. He comes across like that. But he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the world,” Merson said.

“And if Chelsea want to get back to being one of the best in the world, you’ve got to have a top goalkeeper,” he added, before offering a defence of the man Martinez arrives to compete with. “Robert Sanchez is usually a good shot-stopper. This weekend, or against Arsenal at the Emirates in two weeks’ time, he could be mind-blowing. He could make save after save after save and you’ll sit there and go: ‘Wow.’ He could save Chelsea next week.”

Merson was careful not to pile all of the blame on Sanchez for Chelsea’s decision to move for a rival. “I don’t like picking on goalkeepers because it’s a hard job, and you make one mistake for every 50 mistakes the outfield players make with their passing,” he said. “But the match against Fulham was another game that he brought the other team back into the game.”

What Martinez brings

Martinez, 33, won the World Cup with Argentina in 2022 and picked up the tournament’s Golden Glove as its best goalkeeper, a status that made him one of Villa Park’s most recognisable figures after his move from Arsenal back in September 2020. His shot-stopping and penalty record turned Villa’s home ground into one of the more difficult places in the Premier League to score against, and his on-pitch confrontations with opponents became as much a part of his profile as the saves themselves.

For Chelsea, the appeal is experience at the highest level, delivered by a goalkeeper who has started World Cup finals and Copa America finals in the biggest moments of his career. Whether that translates into an immediate change to Xabi Alonso’s starting goalkeeper remains to be seen, but the club now has cover, and competition, that did not exist a week ago.

The end of a difficult summer at Villa Park

Martinez’s departure adds to what has already been a summer of significant change for Aston Villa, whose Europa League-winning squad from May has been reduced by a series of high-profile exits. Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Ezri Konsa and Lucas Digne have all left the club in the months that followed, and question marks had persisted over Martinez and striker Ollie Watkins for weeks before this move brought his Villa Park story to a close.

Martinez leaves Villa Park as one of the most popular signings of the Emery era, a goalkeeper whose penalty saves and vocal presence turned Villa’s home form into one of the division’s genuine strengths for several seasons running. His exit closes a chapter that began with a £20m move from Arsenal in September 2020 and ends with a World Cup winner leaving for £7.5m, a difference in fee that reflects his age and the final years of his career rather than a fall in ability.

For Villa, the £7.5m fee brings clarity to a goalkeeping position that had effectively already been decided the moment Suzuki arrived from Parma. For Chelsea, it brings a World Cup winner into a dressing room already adjusting to Xabi Alonso’s methods, with the goalkeeping jersey now the subject of genuine competition heading into the busiest part of the season.

Martinez himself has not spoken publicly about the move, with Chelsea yet to confirm a date for his first press conference at Cobham. Sanchez started in goal against Fulham on Monday and Penders was preferred for the Carabao Cup tie with Luton on Thursday, meaning Alonso has already used two of his three senior options this week without Martinez even registered.

A goalkeeper market on the move

Martinez’s exit is the latest piece in a chain of goalkeeper business that has run through several major clubs this window. Vicario’s move from Tottenham to Juventus removed the option Martinez had been most strongly linked with earlier in the summer, while Villa’s decision to spend close to £30m on Suzuki from Parma effectively wrote the final chapter of Martinez’s Villa Park career before Chelsea ever made an approach.

Chelsea’s own interest in upgrading their goalkeeping department stretches back well beyond this single transfer window, through more than a year of speculation over the position. The failed attempt to sign Mike Maignan from AC Milan last summer left the club still searching for the experienced presence they wanted between the posts, and Sanchez’s uneven performances this year have kept that search alive even while the club publicly played down the idea of signing a rival. Martinez’s arrival closes that chapter, even if it opens a new one over exactly who starts when the Premier League season moves into its more demanding weeks.

How the goalkeeper situation now looks

Chelsea go into the weekend, and a trip to Arsenal at the Emirates in two weeks, with three senior goalkeepers on their books who could all reasonably expect to be involved this season. Sanchez has the experience of having started for most of last season, Penders arrives with a season of senior football at Strasbourg behind him, and now Martinez brings a decade of experience at the top of the club and international game.

Alonso has not publicly committed to a first-choice goalkeeper now that Martinez’s move has been agreed, and the head coach faces an early selection problem of his own making in a position that had looked settled only a week ago. How he manages the competition between Sanchez, Penders and Martinez across the opening months of the season is likely to say as much about his squad management as any tactical decision he makes going forward.

The fee itself, at £7.5m, reflects Martinez’s age and the final years remaining on a career that has already delivered almost every honour available to a goalkeeper, rather than any question over his current level. Villa recouped only a fraction of the £20m they paid Arsenal for him back in September 2020, but the priority for Emery’s club this summer has been clearing space, both in the squad and on the wage bill, for the rebuild now under way at Villa Park.