No, not all spectacular strikes in the final seconds of stoppage time can be heroically saved. Emiliano Martinez learned it, or rather relearned it, this Saturday against Arsenal.
Hero of Argentina during the World Cup in Qatar, and in particular the final against France with his save in front of Randal Kolo Muani, the Aston Villa goalkeeper was the unfortunate hero of a spectacular match, opening the 24th Premier League day.
A strike on the bar that bounces … on the head of Martinez
While Unai Emery’s men held an all but stolen draw against the struggling Gunners in recent games, the Claret and Blue cracked in the final moments of added time. 94th in 96 minutes on the clock, while Arsenal has been pushing for long minutes, summer rookie Jorginho is found at the entrance to the surface by Gabriel Martinelli. The Italian’s dry, uncontrolled strike bounced off the bar, then on the back of Martinez’s head… at the back of the net (2-3, 90th +4).
Three minutes later, on the final corner of the game for the Villans, Martinez goes up to lend a hand to his attackers and try to snatch a draw, as goalkeepers often do. Unfortunately for the world champion, his team lost the ball and was pierced by an express counterattack, led by Fabio Vieira and Gabriel Martinelli, which ended in the empty goal (2-4, 90th +8).
Arsenal again leader… with one game less than City
In less than 5 minutes, Mikel Arteta’s men secured a very precious victory in the title race, they who had lost the lead on Wednesday evening after losing their late game of the 12th day against Manchester City.
In the standings, and while City are playing this Saturday afternoon on the lawn of Nottingham Forest (4 p.m.) and will therefore once again be one game ahead of their competitor for the crown, Arsenal temporarily recover their throne with a three-point lead. on the Skyblues (54, versus 51). The Gunners still have to play, on March 1, a late match of the 7th day against Everton, who precisely beat them on February 4 (1-0).
The Reds and Whites had enough to be scared of, however, jostled and led twice by devious Villans, who very quickly opened the scoring thanks to Watkins (1-0, 5th) and led at the break, after Coutinho (2-1, 32nd) responded to Saka’s superb equalizer (1-1, 16th). Zinchenko had managed to equalize (2-2, 61st) before this completely crazy end to the match took place.