A string of commanding performances, the gloves firmly on. When Aston Villa ended Manchester City’s winning run last week with a 2-1 victory over Haaland and company, much of the credit went to Zion Suzuki. It was the sort of display that turns heads, and another step in the Japanese goalkeeper’s growing reputation as one of the Premier League’s finest young players. At the start of the season, following his arrival from Parma, Suzuki had been little more than a name of interest to those who follow the game closely. A couple of months into his first-team career in England, he has become one of the league’s most talked-about goalkeepers. The athleticism, the work rate, the quality in possession. The presence, too. Suzuki is making his way towards the top in a hurry.
It was hardly a straightforward job to walk into. Suzuki joined Aston Villa from Parma in mid-August, although, as the Italian club’s directors have since explained, talks had been under way well before the World Cup. He was immediately asked to fill the gloves of Emiliano Martínez, no ordinary predecessor. Over the past five years, the Argentine has become one of football’s most distinctive goalkeepers, winning the World Cup and three further trophies with his country, helping Villa return to the Champions League and lifting the Europa League last season. His contribution to the club’s rise has been immense. Time and again, Martínez produced the sort of saves that change games, often from situations that seemed beyond rescuing.
Suzuki has shown little sign of being troubled by the task, or by the considerable price tag attached to him. At €36 million, he was never going to slip under the radar. Instead, he has settled in quickly, taking over from Martínez with remarkable assurance. He has been conceding roughly a goal a game, an encouraging return for a 24-year-old playing in the Premier League for the first time. Yet it is his work with the ball that has perhaps attracted the most attention. Suzuki has become an important part of Unai Emery’s attempt to build Villa’s game from the back, a style that places considerable demands on the goalkeeper. He has met them with impressive composure, knowing when to play short, when to go long and when to take a risk. So far, his judgement has been excellent.
It has not taken long for Suzuki to win over the Villa Park crowd, either. His name is already being sung from the stands, to the tunes once reserved for Martínez. The two surnames lend themselves to the same chants, not least because they are so similar in length. The most telling is perhaps the simplest: “The world’s number one”. Martínez had a rather good claim to that title after Argentina’s World Cup triumph in Qatar. Now the Villa faithful are happy to offer it to his successor, whether out of sheer enthusiasm for the new man or lingering affection for the old one.
The songs began with Suzuki’s first appearance in a Villa shirt, a narrow home defeat against reigning champions Arsenal. The result mattered less than the performance, which gave the side a lift after their bruising 4-0 defeat away to Brighton. Since then, Suzuki has looked increasingly at home. The gloves are his, the goal is his. And the future, at least for now, looks very much in his hands. Literally.