Unai Emery will ensure Aston Villa's Emi Martinez is 'mentally ready' for Premier League return
Unai Emery will ensure Emi Martinez is mentally recovered from his World Cup exploits before giving the goalkeeper a Premier League return at Tottenham on Sunday.
The Villa boss has no fears Martinez, who returned to training at Bodymoor Heath on Friday, will be physically ready to play in north London where, by a quirk of fate, the opposing No.1 will be Hugo Lloris, just as it was when Argentina faced France in Doha a fortnight previously.
Martinez emerged as one of the heroes of the final and indeed the whole tournament by helping his nation to shoot-out glory and it is the mental impact of the success – and the subsequent celebrations back home in South America – Emery wants to gauge.
The boss admitted Martinez will need to “adapt quickly” back to the domestic campaign.
“Will he be ready? I don’t know exactly,” he said. “He is going to be available physically and his mentality we are going to check. Hopefully he is coming 100 per cent focused on Aston Villa.”
Emery continued: “He is a very competitive goalkeeper and is pushing his team-mates on the training ground every day.
“When he is coming back we have to try to introduce him again into our everyday and to be positive to use his energy and trying to use his mentality to help us.”
Should Martinez require more time, Emery will once again turn to understudy Robin Olsen. The Sweden international enjoyed his most consistent performance for the club in the Boxing Day defeat to Liverpool, making several saves to deny Darwin Nunez and earning praise from his boss.
Yet he still conceded three times and there is no escaping the fact that, with him in goal, Villa’s defence has been notably more porous. In his four appearances since initially joining on loan from Roma in January, they have let in 14 goals, an average of one every 23 minutes he has been on the pitch.
France No.1 Lloris was left on the bench as Tottenham restarted the season with a 2-2 draw at Brentford, Antonio Conte’s men fighting back from two goals down against their London rivals.
Somewhat surprisingly, considering how often both managers have been involved in European competition, tomorrow will be the first time they have ever faced each other in the dugout.
“I know Antonio Conte’s teams,” said Emery. "He is so competitive and a successful coach.
"Tottenham have very fast, strong players. For five or six years they have been competing a lot to be in the top four.
"We know it is going to be very difficult but we want to go one step ahead and to fight and to compete.
"It is a tough challenge but I am optimistic to work and to try to help this club and those players be able to fight and win against them.”
Emery is aiming to make it two away wins from two in the Premier League since taking charge at Villa, with his team having claimed a 2-1 victory at Brighton in the final fixture before the World Cup break.
Matty Cash could also be recalled to the starting XI after being an unused substitute in the defeat to Liverpool.
