Emi Martinez joins pals at the casino in London’s Mayfair on break from Aston Villa training

Posted Saturday, February 11, 2023 by Thesun.co.uk

ASTON VILLA keeper Emi Martinez rocked up to a London casino for a night with friends.

The World Cup-winning shot-stopper, 30, enjoyed a brief break from club training as he headed out with his pals in Mayfair on Thursday.

Emi Martinez headed to a London casino in Mayfair

He was snapped heading into The Palm Beach Casino for a fun evening out - which he left at around midnight.

Martinez's outing comes a few days before their trip to champions Manchester City on Sunday.

Villa have won five of their nine games in all competitions since manager Unai Emery took over from Steven Gerrard.

The positive run of form has seen them move up to 11th in the Premier League table, just one point adrift of the top half.

But Villa have failed to beat Man City in any of their previous 14 meetings.

And they may well need all of Martinez's gamesmanship tactics if they are to take anything away from the Etihad.

The Argentina keeper hit the headlines during the World Cup when his confrontational approach helped his country to beat France on penalties in the final.

Last season, he managed something similar against Manchester United when he dared Cristiano Ronaldo to take a spot kick, before Bruno Fernandes stepped up and missed.

After taking charge at Villa Park, Emery insisted he would have a word with Martinez about his antics after he goaded France's Kylian Mbappe by holding a baby doll with the star's face on it during Argentina's World Cup victory parade.

The former Arsenal boss said: "I want to speak with him when he will come here next week but I am thinking more about his performance and his win, than his celebration.

"The celebration is for the supporters, with really big emotions. It’s not really a good moment as a coach to identify why.

"I prefer to be focused on how he performed and how he is going to win with us afterwards. I am going to speak with him because I want to control him about that as well - his emotions.

"We have to have values, we have to focus on behaviour when we are together and with the opposition players.

"We can speak in 90 per cent of the cases about very good things, and be very proud of him, for his performance, for his win. It is about more than small details like celebrations."