David Raya will have extra motivation to keep a clean sheet next weekend, as he’s one away from matching a Premier League record.
Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya kept a clean sheet against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, and he earned the accolade with an excellent first-half save from Joao Gomes onto the post.
The clean sheet was Raya’s sixth consecutive Premier League clean sheet away from home, which is a club record for Arsenal.
In fact, Raya is now approaching the all-time Premier League record, with only Manchester United and Chelsea having ever managed seven clean sheets away from home in a row.
Given Chelsea used multiple goalkeepers in their run, Edwin van der Sar is the only goalkeeper to have kept more clean sheets in consecutive Premier League away games than Raya.
For Raya to match van der Sar’s achievement, and for Arsenal to match Manchester United and Chelsea’s records, the Gunners now need to keep a clean sheet away at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Sunday.
Arsenal will first face Chelsea on Tuesday, but that game is at the Emirates Stadium and won’t count towards the record.
David Raya’s recent away record
- West Ham 0-6 Arsenal
- Burnley 0-5 Arsenal
- Sheffield United 0-6 Arsenal
- Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal
- Brighton 0-3 Arsenal
- Wolves 0-2 Arsenal
On top of his club-record-breaking away run, Raya is leading the race for the Golden Glove.
With 13 Premier League clean sheets this season, Raya is four clean sheets away of Jordan Pickford and Bernd Leno (nine each) and five ahead of Andre Onana, Emi Martinez, and Ederson (eight each).
Only Pickford, Leno, Onana, and Ederson still have enough games remaining to overtake Raya’s current count, and most of them would have to keep clean sheets in all of their matches whilst Raya kept none in his.
The one exception is Pickford, who sits four clean sheets behind Raya with six games remaining. So he has one game of leeway.
If all goes well, Raya could confirm the Golden Glove in a week or two.