Chris Sutton baffled by Aston Villa boss Unai Emery’s comments after Arsenal defeat

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Chris Sutton has told BBC Radio 5 Live that he was left baffled by what Aston Villa boss Unai Emery’s said about Emiliano Martinez after the Arsenal defeat.

Villa suffered a 4-2 loss against the Gunners on Saturday after heading into the break 2-1 up thanks to goals from Ollie Watkins and Philippe Coutinho. 

Arsenal mounted an impressive second-half comeback after goals from Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Martinelli, while Martinez scored an unfortunate own-goal.

The north Londoner’s fourth goal in particular left Emery unimpressed as Martinez headed up the pitch to attack a Villa corner. It led to Martinelli putting the ball into an empty goal, with the 30-year-old Villa star up the other end of the pitch. 

Emery admitted after the game that he was unhappy with the Argentine’s decision, which has left Sutton slightly confused.

Sutton on Emery comments

Speaking on The Monday Night Club, Sutton said he doesn’t agree with the Villa boss being unhappy about Martinez’s decision to join the attack.

But he did admit that he can understand why the Spaniard spoke publicly about Martinez’s actions if it went against his specific instructions.

“If it wasn’t his instructions for Martinez to go up then he should have stayed put,” the former Blackburn striker said.

“And that’s why I think he was so angry after. I think it’s strange because it was virtually the last kick of the game that he views it that way. But that’s my opinion.

“But the fact that Martinez has taken it into his own hands, he has undermined the manager and in that case, and I’m never that mad on managers coming out and publicly slamming players, but I understand why he did that so I think Martinez was wrong.

“Most managers I know would chuck the goalkeeper up, because why? Nothing to lose, you may as well end up losing by a couple of goals as losing by one.

“But Martinez is a strange one, he has come back from the World Cup, he had a brilliant World Cup and I think maybe Emery is thinking do you know what, he just needs to drop down a gear, he may be getting a little too big for his boots.”

It will be interesting to see if Martinez keeps his place in the Villa side after he clearly angered Emery on Saturday.

The Villains’ back-up shot stopper, Robin Olsen, had put in some shaky performances in Martinez’s absence though, so it may be a risk that isn’t worth taking for Emery.