Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insisted he had ‘two number ones’ at Manchester United earlier this year.
For David de Gea, that would have been like hearing that your partner loved someone else. The Spaniard has enjoyed a happy marriage with United since he arrived from Spain over a decade ago but the arrangement was in danger of turning sour last season. De Gea was underperforming, appearing low in confidence, and Dean Henderson was ready to take his place as the club's No.1 goalkeeper.
Solskjaer started Henderson in eight consecutive Premier League games in the second par of the campaign and it seemed a divorce with De Gea was inevitable.
Rescuing any marriage is not straightforward; it requires determination, compromise and some luck, but De Gea wanted to try.
The Spaniard returned from his holiday early and Henderson caught COVID, which subsequently ruled him out for weeks. The circumstances were conducive for a renaissance from De Gea, however, the 31-year-old still had to go out there and deliver on the pitch.
With Henderson sidelined, De Gea started by default on the opening day of the season and it was an opportunity he couldn't waste.
De Gea's excellent save at Southampton and heroics at Wolves in August suggested he was back. His injury-time penalty save to save Mark Noble's penalty at West Ham two weeks later confirmed that. De Gea had been outstanding and he looked renewed.
Solskjaer's goalkeeping dilemma between De Gea and Henderson suddenly looked like a distant memory.
It wasn't quite the comeback tale akin to Tiger Woods' remarkable and emotional 2019 Masters triumph, but it was a positive in a season that was about to capitulate. United's displays began to worsen and De Gea was often left vulnerable to a barrage of shots.
It's always a worrying sign when your goalkeeper is your standout performer and it's telling that De Gea has so often been in the conversation for the Man of the Match award this term. It's scary to think where United would be without De Gea and Cristiano Ronaldo.
De Gea has been excellent and the first blemish of his season came away against Atalanta in the Champions League in November. His saves have bailed United out on multiple occasions and it was time for his teammates to repay the favour in Bergamo.
Ronaldo duly obliged — it was always going to be Ronaldo — when finding the back of the net in stoppage time to earn a draw.
More often than not, De Gea has saved United points this term, but it's not just the eye test that he's passed with flying colours as he continues to go from strength to strength as statistics show he's been the best shot-stopper in the Premier League this season.
The concept of expected goals (xG) is relatively new in football, but it's a helpful statistic that is becoming increasingly popular.
The metric quantifies a goal-scoring opportunity by assessing a chance based on a number of different variables such as shot location and shot type, but what it doesn't account for is what actually happens to the shot when the ball has left the player's foot.
That's why we have Post-Shot Expected Goals (PSxG), which considers the shot quality and combines what happens to the chance.
This can be used to analyse goalkeepers as it looks at how likely a goalkeeper is to save a shot based on where it ended up. According to PSxG, De Gea has been the best shot-stopper in the Premier League this term. To be ranked so highly on this metric is impressive.
The caveat is that De Gea has dealt with more shots than his rivals due to United's tragically porous defence this campaign, though.
Nonetheless, Manchester City's Ederson might be the current Golden Glove holder, but the data shows that De Gea is excelling on an individual basis. His story arc is now complete after his return to form and that marriage with United seems unbreakable again.
De Gea recently overtook Bryan Robson on the all-time appearances list at United and he's sure to leave as a club legend now.
We’ve teamed up with LiveScore to invite fans to vote for their favourite results - the games which were much more than a score. Vote for the match that mattered to you here .
