keeper

Martinez is arguably not as imperious as he once was. But it is difficult to pinpoint exactly why.

A World Cup winner with Argentina in 2022, having joined Villa for £17m in 2020, he has been one of the club’s best performers.

This season, though, the cracks have begun to show – for which it is easy to blame his failed move to United.

An emotional Martinez appeared to be saying goodbye after Villa’s final home game of last season, against Tottenham in May.

Villa were open to letting him leave, looking at Brentford‘s Mark Flekken among others, but then Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim lost the battle to bring him to Old Trafford.

United’s data suggested Senne Lammens was going to be one of Europe’s best, that although he was not good as Martinez now, signing the Belgian made more sense, financially and for the future.

They wanted to spend money in attacking areas – signing Matheus Cunha, Benjamin Sesko and Bryan Mbuemo – with Amorim overruled on a move for Martinez as Lammens joined from Royal Antwerp instead.

On 31 August, the day before the transfer deadline, Martinez was left out for a 3-0 home defeat by Crystal Palace. When asked about Martinez’s whereabouts, head coach Unai Emery repeated the name of stand-in keeper Marco Bizot several times.

He returned after the international break for a 0-0 draw at Everton on 13 September – with Emery calling him “the best goalkeeper in the world”, and one who had a “massive” commitment to Villa.

But has Martinez been as consistent this season?

There has been more than one late withdrawal from a game – including two following the warm-ups before matches against Brighton and Feyenoord.

He has saved 76.1% of the shots he has faced this season – the most in the league – and is fifth on Opta’s ‘goals prevented’ stats list with 17.

He has made 55 saves – the 12th-highest total of any Premier League goalkeeper this season. His ‘expected goals on target conceded’ tally – which measures the likelihood of an on-target shot resulting in a goal – is 20.85.

Villa have conceded 25 this season, but eight of those have been with Bizot in goal so Martinez’s stats should not be worrying.

It is the three mistakes leading to a goal – the highest in the league – which will gnaw away, though.

The most obvious was his error at Anfield in November, gifting the ball to Mohamed Salah to score, and giving Liverpool a platform for a 2-0 win.

Yet, Villa went on to win their next 11 games, before losing 4-1 to Arsenal on 30 December, when Martinez again faced scrutiny.

He spilled the ball under pressure from Gabriel from a corner, allowing the defender to score, although Villa argued the goal should have been disallowed for a high elbow by the Arsenal man.

Last Sunday’s his mistake, failing to catch or clear Dwight McNeil’s shot, contributed to Thierno Barry’s winner for Everton.

He missed Thursday’s 1-0 Europa League win at Fenerbahce with a calf injury, with Bizot keeping his fifth clean sheet in 11 games this season.

Dutchman Bizot, signed from Brest in the summer, is 34 and not a long-term replacement for Martinez.

But the Argentine is being linked with Inter Milan, and Villa are expected to assess his future in the summer.