We wanted to show some love to goalkeepers, so have gone through the best data we have on the Premier League‘s finest shot stoppers from 2024-25.
Goalkeepers can feel like outsiders. They have to train separately, wear a different kit to everyone else, and are even forced to wear gloves due to being cold-blooded ectotherms who must regulate their body temperature to… oh, sorry, it’s to help them to catch the ball better apparently. Our mistake.
The expectations around goalkeepers seem to grow every season. Not just satisfied with them stopping the ball from going in the net, many are expected to be an 11th option in build-up play as well.
Shot stoppers perhaps aren’t always given the credit they deserve, so we’ve decided to have a big sift through some goalkeeper data to bring you the best stats around Premier League number ones from the 2024-25 season.
But we’re nothing if not traditionalists here at Opta Analyst, so we’re going to start by looking at save data.
It has been a phenomenal season so far for Nottingham Forest, and the form of goalkeeper Matz Sels has been a big reason for that. The Belgian has been a reliable figure between the sticks for his manager, Nuno Espírito Santo, and currently leads the way in the race for the Golden Glove award for the most clean sheets in the Premier League this season (13).
Sels almost extended his lead on Monday but was denied a 14th shutout of the league campaign by Richarlison’s late header in Forest’s 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur.
He sits one clean sheet ahead of Arsenal’s David Raya (12), with Everton’s Jordan Pickford and Crystal Palace’s Dean Henderson in joint third (10).
Despite some recent criticism, Manchester United’s André Onana is in fifth with nine clean sheets, level with Alisson Becker. It should be pointed out, though, that Liverpool’s Brazilian has played just 23 Premier League games this season, nine fewer than Onana and 10 fewer than any of the four goalkeepers to have kept more clean sheets.
Similarly, Manchester City’s Ederson has seven from just 22 appearances, the same number as Chelsea’s Robert Sánchez (27 games) and Bournemouth’s Chelsea loanee Kepa Arrizabalaga (26 games).
There’s more to a clean sheet than a goalkeeper, though, so let’s look at how many saves they’re making.
Brentford’s Mark Flekken has been the busiest, erm, bee, making 133 saves in total this season, a whopping 25 more than any other goalkeeper. Two players with seventeen places separating their teams in the table, Southampton’s Aaron Ramsdale and Sels, have made the joint-second most saves, with 108 each.
Leicester City’s Mads Hermansen has been kept busy, with 101 saves, while Pickford is the only other person to have a century of stops to his name in 2024-25 (100). Fulham’s Bernd Leno (96) and Henderson (94) are next.
A lot of those names will have faced a lot of shots, though, so will have had far more opportunities to rack up those saves than others… not that they’ll be too happy about that.
We’re sure they’d rather have less to do, so let’s look at save percentage to see if other names appear.
Straight away, yes, another name is at the top of the list. When looking at Premier League goalkeepers to have played at least 500 minutes this season, Arsenal’s David Raya has the highest save percentage, keeping 73.5% of shots on target out of the Gunners’ net. That’s marginally ahead of Sels (73.3%), Flekken (73.0%), Sánchez (72.6%) and Alisson (72.5%).
At the other end of the spectrum, we should really look at the lowest save percentage in the Premier League as well (min. 500 minutes). Ipswich Town’s Christian Walton has only saved 51.5% of shots on target faced this season in 540 minutes of action, though has also faced the highest expected goals on target conceded (xGOT) per 90 minutes (2.55), so has in theory been facing harder chances than anyone else.
The next lowest percentage belongs to Wolves’ Sam Johnstone (57.5%), followed by teammate José Sá (58.5%), Leicester’s Jakub Stolarczyk (58.6%) and Brighton & Hove Albion’s Bart Verbruggen (58.7%).
In fact, according to our goals prevented metric – consisting of goals conceded (excluding own goals) minus expected goals on target (xGOT) – Verbruggen has conceded 50 goals from 44.7 xGOT, meaning he has conceded around 5.3 goals more than would normally be expected from an average goalkeeper.
That’s the most of anyone in the division, ahead of West Ham’s Alphonse Areola (-3.5 goals prevented), Leno (-3.2), Sá (-3.0) and Johnstone (-3.0). It doesn’t mean they’re bad goalkeepers, though, any more than a striker overperforming against their xG means they’re world class; quite often these things even out over time. It does, however, mean that they’ve underperformed over the course of this season.
In terms of the most efficient stoppers this season, Henderson has prevented the most goals compared to expected goals on target faced, conceding just 42 goals from 46.35 xGOT. That means the Palace man has prevented 4.4 more goals than an average goalkeeper would normally have been expected to concede.
That’s ahead of Ederson (4.2), Tottenham Hotspur’s Guglielmo Vicario (4.2), Sels (4.2) and Hermansen (3.7).
Henderson is also joined by Raya as the only two goalkeepers to have been ever-present for their team in the Premier League this season while also not making a single error that has led to a goal.
The keepers to have made the most errors leading to a goal this season are Sánchez, Arijanet Muric and Verbruggen (all five), ahead of Onana (three), Nick Pope, Ederson, Alex McCarthy and Areola (two).
Like someone being dragged to a salsa class by their partner, goalkeepers must also be good with their feet these days, so let’s get to what separates the wheat from the chaff and look at who has thrived when doing an impression of an outfielder this season.
It would be remiss of us not to start with assists, just so we can bring up Ederson’s achievement in that area. Man City’s goalkeeper has four assists to his name in his 22 league games this season; that’s half the eight in total from goalkeepers, with no one else recording more than one. It is also more assists than Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden, Brennan Johnson, Kaoru Mitoma, Noni Madueke, Cody Gakpo, Kai Havertz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Emile Smith Rowe and Callum Hudson-Odoi, among others, have managed.
The other goalkeepers to have an assist to their name this season are Verbruggen, Pickford, Leno and Flekken (all one).
Ederson has also created the most chances for a teammate this season with four, meaning every chance he has created has led to a goal. No other goalkeeper in the Premier League has created more than two, though Pickford and Raya have the most secondary chances created with five apiece, which is passing to a teammate who then creates a chance.
Looking purely at passing accuracy, some may expect to see Ederson top of that list too, but it’s actually Vicario for Spurs who leads the way, with 88.8%. Ederson is in second place (86.6%), ahead of another Spurs man in Fraser Forster (82.6%), suggesting Ange Postecoglou’s preferred style of passing out from the back is well and truly ingrained in his team no matter who is between the sticks. Chelsea’s Filip Jørgensen (82.4%) and Alisson (80.4%) come next.
Looking at goal kicks, you can get a good idea of which goalkeepers are tasked with going long or keeping it short. Vicario, for example, has seen more than three-quarters (75.4%) of his goal kicks not even leave the penalty area before finding a teammate. No other goalkeeper in the Premier League has even seen half of theirs do the same.
The lowest overall passing accuracy belongs to Sels, who has found a teammate with just 46.5% of his passes, though this can be partly explained by the fact he also has the longest average successful pass distance (36.7 metres) of any goalkeeper in the Premier League.
Forest’s keeper is expected to go long with a lot of his passes – just 18.7% of his goal kicks are to a teammate inside his own penalty area – as are many of the others with the lowest passing accuracy; Hermansen (56.0%), Sá (57.6%), Henderson (57.7%), and Ramsdale (61.8%).
Some might not have expected Ramsdale to be there considering Southampton’s possession-based style for most of the season, but the former Arsenal man has attempted the fifth-most long balls of any goalkeeper (533).
Pickford has attempted the most long balls – passes with a length of at least 32 metres – of Premier League goalkeepers this season (776 – 41.2% accuracy).
That’s ahead of Flekken (687 – 44.7% accuracy), Sels (657 – 35.8% accuracy) and Henderson (548 – 26.8% accuracy).
In terms of getting the ball deep into enemy territory, Pickford comfortably leads the way again for passes into the opposition’s final third (118), well ahead of Flekken (74), Ramsdale (54), Raya (52) and Sels (52).
Pickford (49) and Flekken (33) are also the only two goalkeepers to have played at least 20 passes that have ended in the opponent’s penalty area.
Goalkeepers can of course still use their hands, though, and the art of the thrown pass has not been entirely lost. Chelsea’s Sánchez is the biggest fan of distribution with his hands this season, having thrown the ball 159 times, 153 of which found a teammate, also the most, one ahead of Pope (152 successful of 153 throws).
We sometimes come down a little too hard on goalkeepers. When they make a mistake, it often leads to a goal being conceded, but they can also be the heroes, and the Premier League has some of the best in the world.
It will be interesting to see how much further the role evolves over the coming years.
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Goal Preventers, Pass Masters and Chance Creators: The Best Goalkeeper Stats from the 2024-25 Premier League Opta Analyst.
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