Premier League keepers ranked: De Gea three places ahead of Ramsdale
We’ve used fancy stats to rank the Premier League keepers and the numbers highlight how brilliant Alisson and Bernd Leno have been. And why Leeds have finally dropped Illan Meslier…
Courtesy of the wonderful FBREF we’ve used the PSxG minus goals allowed metric to rank the top-flight stoppers. ‘What the f*** is that?’ you might reasonably ask…
Post-shot expected goals is expected goals based on how likely the goalkeeper is to save the shot. When the number of goals they have conceded is subtracted, we are left with the figures below. FBREF explains that positive numbers suggest better luck or an above-average ability to stop shots. We’ve included only those goalkeepers with eight or more appearances.
1) Alisson (Liverpool): +10.1
He has been comfortably Liverpool’s player of the season.
2) Bernd Leno (Fulham): +9.2
Leno was always too good to sit on Arsenal’s bench and the German has been a very astute purchase for Fulham.
3) David Raya (Brentford): +4.6
More saves than any other keeper in the Premier League. Is he an option for Manchester United?
4) Kepa Arrizabalaga (Chelsea): +3.7
He made six saves versus Arsenal so the buck really does not stop with Kepa, who has a good argument to be named Chelsea’s player of the season. And yet Frank Lampard dropped him. And then recalled him when he realised he had made an error.
5) Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa): +3.0
Keeping a clean sheet versus a Chelsea side that mustered seven on-target shots took the World Cup winner into the green. He was then properly tested by Leicester City. Not so much by Forest or Brentford. He had no chance as he conceded v Spurs/Harry Kane and was excellent v Liverpool.
6) Jordan Pickford (Everton): +2.7
Has been largely excellent for an oft-rotten Everton side this season but against Manchester City he was woeful. Roy Keane was not impressed.
7) Neto (Bournemouth): +1.7
Has done an excellent job to help keep the Cherries in the Premier League and had another good day v Manchester United.
8) Sam Johnstone (Crystal Palace): +1.4
Conceded only nine goals in eight games as Palace have survived with some ease under Roy Hodgson.
9) Vicente Guaita (Crystal Palace): +0.4
Just about in the green and now facing a battle to wrench the gloves from the impressive Sam Johnstone.
10) Nick Pope (Newcastle): +0.3
Pope was one of the signings of the summer for only £10million from Burnley.
11) Lukasz Fabianski (West Ham): -0.1
Losing 2-0 to Brentford does not sound great but then you see he faced nine shots on target. So well done fella.
12) David de Gea (Manchester United): -1.1
The Golden Glove winner. Which absolutely proves that clean sheets are not an accurate measure of goalkeeper greatness.
13) Daniel Iversen (Leicester City): -1.5
Has been much better than Danny Ward but went from 1.5 in the green to 0.7 in the red during a wretched 90 minutes at Fulham. And then fell further after Liverpool. Three saves v Newcastle was more like it.
14) Jason Steele (Brighton): -1.7
After a strong start upon taking over from Robert Sanchez, Steele has struggled to keep pace with the better keepers.
15) Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal): -2.0
Not great, is it? But Ramsdale has now kept 10 clean sheets on the road this season, something only Ederson and Petr Cech have previously achieved in the Premier League. But then he conceded three from an xG of 1.8 v Brighton.
16) Edouard Mendy (Chelsea): -2.1
Brought back into the team v Nottingham Forest and he was pretty rotten, making exactly zero saves.
17) Fraser Forster (Tottenham): -2.5
Made literally zero saves at Liverpool last Sunday. Zero. They lost 4-3. He didn’t fare much better at Villa. And then he was awful v Brentford.
18) Keylor Navas (Nottingham Forest): -2.7
Finally another clean sheet v Arsenal, though they did not test him too severely.
19) Robert Sanchez (Brighton): -2.8
Spanish Bob forced his way into the national team reckoning with his form after becoming the Brighton No.1, but has he really maintained those levels? He lost his Brighton place to Steele and it’s hard to argue that it’s harsh.
20) Jose Sa (Wolves): -3.6
The leader in this metric last season has been getting better as the season has gone on. A clean sheet against Villa certainly helped.
21) Hugo Lloris (Tottenham): -4.1
After 145 caps, for the first time in almost 15 years, France have to think about a future without their No.1. That day is surely coming for Spurs too, even if the 36-year-old has a couple of years remaining on his deal.
=21) Dean Henderson (Nottingham Forest): -4.1
“I didn’t really want the manager to see me in training because I knew he’d probably want to keep me,” said Henderson about United boss Erik ten Hag. The Forest loanee presumably hopes he doesn’t see his stats too.
23) Ederson (Manchester City): -5.1
Ederson remains the ideal goalkeeper for Manchester City but still some way from being the perfect goalkeeper. City play a high line, like Liverpool, but Ederson is rather more rash than his compatriot Alisson when it comes to dealing with one-versus-ones.
24) Danny Ward (Leicester): -5.5
Eventually dropped.
25) Mark Travers (Bournemouth): -6.9
The numbers look even worse for Travers. He has the lowest save percentage in the Premier League at 51.7%, compared to his rival for Bournemouth’s gloves, Neto, who has been around the top five keepers since he arrived in the Premier League.
26) Illan Meslier (Leeds): -12.4
Leeds fans love Meslier, and plenty of other clubs are apparently watching the young Frenchman, but his numbers are dire. Last season, he finished with a PSxG of -16.2, and though his defence has been wretched, his recent form has been beyond awful. Not happy about being dropped, according to Sam Allardyce, but he could hardly argue.
27) Gavin Bazunu (Southampton): -16.6
Maybe the Southampton goal is no place for a youngster this season. Bazunu was superb for Portsmouth in League One last year but the step up to the Premier League has been a big one for the Republic of Ireland stopper.