Chelsea have reached an agreement with Aston Villa to sign former Arsenal goalkeeper Emi Martinez, and the player could now debut against the Gunners.
David Ornstein and Simon Johnson report for The Athletic that Chelsea have agreed a deal to sign Emi Martinez from Aston Villa, with the Blues to pay £7.5m for the goalkeeper.
Martinez will sign a two-year deal with Chelsea, with the option to extend by an additional 12 months.
Villa had opted to replace Martinez with Zion Suzuki this summer, and the goalkeeper has reportedly been training alone ever since. A transfer was clearly the preferred option for all parties.
Depending on how quickly the deal gets done, Martinez could make his debut for Chelsea against Arsenal.
The Blues visit Arsenal for a Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, September 6th at 16:30 BST.
The only game before that is Chelsea’s home game against Brighton on Sunday, but the move would have to be finalised very quickly for Martinez to feature in that match, and he wouldn’t get a chance to train with his new teammates first.
Martinez had a relatively poor year with Aston Villa in 2025/26, keeping just eight Premier League clean sheets to finish outside the top-10 goalkeepers in the division. Arsenal’s David Raya finished first for the third season in a row.
Things went better for Martinez and Villa in Europe, where they won the Europa League, but the club evidently decided they needed more between the sticks before their step up to Champions League football.
Given Chelsea have no form of European football at all, Martinez will want to ensure he’ll get minutes domestically. But that wouldn’t be a surprise, particularly after Robert Sanchez’s recent performances.
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