The good news that Dibu Martínez received after setting off the alarm for asking for a change at Aston Villa

A pall of uncertainty had been hanging in the air at the Villa Park stadium when Emiliano Dibu Martínez asked for the change at halftime, after a muscle discomfort, last Saturday. It is not common for a goalkeeper to be replaced, but evidently the world champion had felt something unusual. But this Monday they arrived the reassuring news: the man from Mar del Plata does not have a muscle tearso he could even be available next weekend against Brighton, for the Premier League.

For the Villains, the departure of Dibu Martínez was not a minor issue. They defeated Chelsea 2-0 at half-time, and suffered a tie in the second half, when the goal was already Robin Olsen.

While waiting for the official medical report, the information emerging from Birmingham indicates that Dibu Martínez has a strong contracture in the back of his right thigh, but without distension. Apart from Sunday’s duel against Brighton, Aston Villa are also thinking about the second leg of the semi-finals of the Conference League against Olympiacos of Greecewhich will be next week.

In the immediate future, All of Dibu’s guns are aimed at closing the season with Aston Villa, very attentive to both fronts and the chance to give a title to a historic English club again after four seasons (the last was the English League Cup in 2019/20). Internationally, the Villains have a Champions League (1981/82), a UEFA Super Cup (1982) and the extinct Intertoto (2001).

For this reason, decisive games are coming up for the team led by Unai Emery and, beyond this physical problem, Dibu already knows that he won’t be able to play next: The accumulation of yellow cards left him out of the first leg against Olympiakos.

“He is calm, waiting for the studies”, they had trusted the world champion goalkeeper in Qatar from those around him. The man from Mar del Plata took advantage of Sunday noon for a delicious lunch with entrails, provoleta and various salads at his house, with his family.

Without a doubt, Martínez is experiencing a very atypical situation for him since this campaign he played the vast majority of his team’s games: 33 out of 35 in the Premier Leagueas he also occupied the goal every time Lionel Scaloni called him up for the Argentine National Team.

Aston Villa beat Chelsea almost without breaking a sweat from the start of the match, by a goal against Marc Cucurellaand then he was able to stretch the advantage thanks to a very good definition of Morgan Rogers. It was 2-0, a partial victory and the Villanos secured fourth place in the table, ensuring they entered next year’s Champions League. But the night came in Villa Park.

The party atmosphere was cut short at the start of the second half, when Swedish Robin Olsen, the Argentine’s substitute, appeared under the goalposts of the local team. The first information that came from England spoke of a muscle discomfort for the one born in Mar del Plata, who takes care of his physique thinking about what is coming.

In those 45 minutes that Dibu managed to play, he seemed somewhat upset, stretching on several occasions and receiving attention from the doctors. He had almost no interventions. The Senegalese Nicolas Jackson he beat him in a bailout and tied it at 1-1 but The VAR detected that the Chelsea striker was ahead. In another play, the 1 looked and the ball hit the post after another attempt by the African.

Dibu seemed to be injured in that one-on-one match in which Jackson scored Chelsea’s goal from an offside position, more precisely in the area of ​​the hamstring of his right leg.

Dibu Martínez had to watch the second half from off the court. Or rather, he had to suffer it. Aston Villa felt the blow of losing the best goalkeeper in the world and Chelsea stepped up in search of closing the gap. The pressure and attack of Mauricio Pochettino’s men were a constant, and that’s how the goals came: Noni Madueke took advantage of a nap on the way out of the home, and Conor Gallagher tied it with a great goal from the corner.

The story could have ended even worse when in the added time poor Olsen remembered Dibu and made a save similar to the one the Argentine experienced against Kolo Muaninothing more and nothing less than against one of the Premier’s scorers Cole Palmer, which would have meant the defeat of the local team. The drama continued until the final minutes when the referee, at the request of the VAR, annulled a Chelsea goal due to a ‘little push’ at the start of the play.

With 67 points, Aston Villa is fourth in the Premier League. You can only reach it Tottenham, which has 60 points but with five games ahead. And they go to fourth place in the Champions League… But of course, Draw will want the last game before the Copa América to be on May 29, in Athens, for the very final of the Conference League.