Martinez impressed in Villa’s win over Arsenal on Sunday, producing a superb save to keep out Leandro Trossard before watching his side score two late goals up the other end.
Arsenal were hoping to return to the top of the Premier League and capitalise on Liverpool’s shock defeat to Crystal Palace earlier in the day but now find themselves two points behind Manchester City with six games remaining.
The Gunners are bidding to win their first league title in 20 years, having finished second last season, five points behind Man City.
The defeat to Aston Villa may hurt Arsenal fans even more given it was inspired by one of their former managers, Unai Emery, and ex-goalkeeper Martinez.
Reflecting on his time at Arsenal after Villa clinched the three points in north London, World Cup winner Martinez told Sky Sports: ‘I think it was 10-11 years I was here. I’ve still got friends here. I came here as a lad and left a man. I’ll always love this club.
‘They are still second, they’ve come far and have one of the best managers in the world. I’ve worked with Mikel [Arteta]. I know how good he is.’
The Aston Villa No. 1 added: ‘I enjoy every win but the fans have been supporting us home and away. We knew an away win would help our Champions League hopes.
‘This is the first step, we’ve got five finals left. But we need to enjoy this one then go again on Thursday and try to make the semi-finals.’
While Arsenal are going for their first Premier League title since 2004, Villa have aspirations of their own during the run-in as they look to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
The win at the Emirates Stadium takes them three points above fifth-placed Tottenham, who suffered a humbling 4-0 defeat at Newcastle United yesterday.
‘I’m very proud of the players,’ Emery said. ‘Beating Arsenal here is very difficult and we needed to play and be focused 100% and being very demanding in everything and more organised defensively.
‘We needed the biggest commitment to do better than we did against Manchester City, that was the sample we used for this match and then, tried to face them playing in this level because this is the level I want to get to with our players and progressively, we are getting better.’
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