ALMUNIA WEEK

Manuel Almunia... Spaniard made more saves than Edwin van der Sar

Almunia Week: Manuel's complete 2008/09 stats

You voted Manuel Almunia third in our Player of the Season poll so we’re dedicating this week to him on the official club website.

Today we’ve compared Almunia’s comprehensive 2008/09 stats with that of his Big Four rivals.

Now you can see exactly how our No 1 measures up against the cream of the Premier League.

BIG FOUR KEEPER STATS
  Almunia Reina Cech Van der Sar
Appearances 32 38 35 33
Goals conceded 26 27 24 21
Unsuccessful distribution 118 135 122 110
Successful distribution 209 309 255 257
Distribution success rate (%) 64% 70% 68% 70%
Clean sheets 15 20 19 22
Saves made 147 159 165 127
Minutes played 2868 3420 3150 2912
Minutes per save 19.5 21.5 19.1 22.9
Minutes per goal conceded 110.3 126.6 131.3 138.6
% of games with clean sheet 47% 53% 54% 67%

In only his first season as Arsenal’s No 1, Manuel produced a set of stats that prove he is hot on the heels of the other Big Four keepers.
 
A series of injuries meant that the Spaniard played substantially less than his rivals, but the percentage and average stats show just how close he is to the likes of Edwin van der Sar, Petr Cech and Pepe Reina.
 
First and foremost, Almunia conceded only five more than Van der Sar’s table-topping 21 and two less than Cech. That said, he conceded goals more often than the other three; on average goals went in every 110.3 minutes, 16.6 minutes more regularly than his closest rival Reina.
 
When it came to distribution, Almunia was trumped by the more experienced trio but only just. He was six per cent behind Jose Reina and Van der Sar and only four per cent off Cech.
 
However, he did keep the fewest clean sheets and finished with the lowest ‘clean sheet percentage’ of the quartet. But perhaps that stat doesn’t tell the whole story.
 
Manuel made a respectable 147 saves, 20 more than Van der Sar but 12 and 18 less than Reina and Cech respectively. At 19.5 minutes per save, the Gunner made saves more often than Cech and only marginally less frequently than the two men in red.
 
Overall, suggests there is very little between the keepers. While Almunia may trail his rivals in certain categories, it is important to remember that the pressure of being a Premier League No 1 is a very new sensation for the Spaniard. Also many of his games were played behind an occasionally unsettled back-four.
 
While there is little doubt among Arsenal supporters that there is more to come from the Osasuna-born stopper, Arsène Wenger already believes his first-choice is the cream of the crop.
 
“In my opinion yes [he is the best],” the manager said during a press conference in May.
 
“He is at the period of his career where he has good decision making at the physical level to achieve what he sees and what he decides.
 
“Many goalkeepers get that right but they do not have the physical quality to do it well.
 
“At the moment he has.”

[Thursday, July 02, 2009]

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