YOU'RE TAKIN' THE MICHELE

Unai left to cry foul over keeper 'foul'

- NEIL MOXLEY

THERE was a lot of pomp and circumstance at Villa Park when Emi Martinez signed his new long-term deal this summer.

The club's megastore was commandeered, his family was flown in and a variety of video footage was played to an adoring holiday crowd invited in to witness the event.

Last night, he proved what all the fuss was about.

Goalkeepers can have decisive effects on football matches.

And so it proved as Martinez, who became the first ever to win the Lev Yashin trophy two times in succession last month, undoubtedly kept Villa's Champions League bandwagon trundling onwards.

After three straight wins in the competition, the handbrake was applied during a controversial evening in Bruges earlier this month.

But, since then, Unai Emery's men have spluttered along.