Analysis: Dreams and speculation alive for Aston Villa as season goes to the wire

The Argentina international stood on the edge of his penalty box, gloved hand to his face, for more than a minute before embarking on a slow walk across the pitch toward the Holte End.

He was the last player to leave the field, eyes wet, hands raised in what many were quick to interpret as a wave of farewell.

Maybe, or maybe not. Those inside Emery’s inner sanctum were quick to dismiss the idea any deal has been agreed to sell any player this summer. A fanbase which can still recall a tearful Jack Grealish throwing his shirt into the crowd at Hull in 2018 should know in football, few things are ever really certain. At least not at this time of year.

Yet if this wasn’t definitely the end, Martinez’s reaction spoke of a man who believed it might be. The interest in the 32-year-old from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in Europe is no mere paper talk.

Emery, speaking in his post-match press conference, did little to offer any assurances over the World Cup winners future or that of Leon Bailey, who appeared to be crying before coming on as a late substitute.

After a season in which he has gone from being a vital member of the team to back out on the fringes, Bailey’s departure would not be so much of a surprise.

Martinez’s exit, however, would feel seismic, comfortably the most significant since Grealish left for Manchester City four summers ago.

There is perhaps no other player who better encapsulates Villa’s transformation over the past few years. 

Right from the moment he joined from Arsenal for £20million in 2020, Martinez has talked big and typically delivered. His belief, confidence and swagger flows through the club. Villa’s first-ever World Cup winner, he is guaranteed to be remembered as one of their finest-ever goalkeepers, maybe even the finest, regardless of what happens from here.

“It’s not about the players you sell, it’s about the ones you buy,” Monchi, the club’s president of football operations, remarked last year.

That may be true, yet replacing a player and character of Martinez’s magnitude would not be easy.

Just at the moment he was being touted, after defeats to Manchester City and Crystal Palace which included goals he maybe should have saved, he has stood up and been counted again, keeping three straight clean sheets to help ensure a Villa team operating with no margin for error remains firmly in the Champions League race in a season going to the wire. 

There was a crucial last-gasp stop to preserve victory at Bournemouth and then, on Friday, with the game still goal-less, a reflex save to prevent Wilson Odobert from opening the scoring with a deft flick from Mathys Tel’s cross.

Against a largely second-string Spurs team which proved far tougher to break down than many were predicting, the save prevented the night from becoming truly nervy for a Villa team which knew only a win would suffice.

Instead, with the scores level a breakthrough always felt inevitable and arrived just prior to the hour mark, Ezri Konsa hooking home on the volley from Ollie Watkins’ header. With 17 minutes remaining, Boubacar Kamara thumped home his first-ever Premier League goal to put the result beyond any doubt.

Villa might and probably should have won by more. Not for the first time at Villa Park, the visiting goalkeeper was their opponents’ best player. The failure to dish out a few batterings in what is now a club record 18-match unbeaten home run in the Premier League may yet come back to haunt Villa, who have by some margin the poorest goal difference of the top-five contenders, come the final shake-up.  

Yet for the past few weeks and months, they could not have done much more. This was their eighth win in the last nine Premier League matches and since the beginning of March, they have probably been the best team in the division. It may, ultimately, not prove quite enough but regardless of what happens over this marathon campaign’s final furlong, it has been some effort.

Friday was Villa’s 32nd win in all competitions this season, a club record in a top-flight season and another achievement added to Emery’s already extensive list. 

Reaching the Champions League for the second straight year would be his most impressive feat yet and while it remains to be seen whether destiny is in their own hands on the final day, Villa could not be heading to Manchester United - a venue where they have won only twice in the last 42 years - in any better shape.

“Until the last second, let’s keep dreaming together,” wrote Emery in Friday night’s programme. Whatever the future might hold for Martinez and others beyond next Sunday, that much at least is assured.