Some time
ago I heard that a football team can only win the Premier League if it has a
world-class goalkeeper... So I looked into it for you!
Below is
a list of goalkeepers in the Premier League era who made the most appearances
in the winning league team - are they world-class?
In my
mind there is no doubt that Peter Schmeichel, David Seaman, Petr Cech and Edwin
van der Sar were all world-class keepers.
Of the
others, I would say that Tim Flowers, Fabien Barthez, Jens Lehmann, Joe Hart,
David de Gea, Thibaut Courtois and Schmeichel Junior were all good enough. The
more recent goalkeepers like Courtois, de Gea, Schmeichel and to an extent Hart
could yet mature into incredible goalkeepers.
Therefore
we can say that an excellent goalkeeper has nearly always won the Premier
League (bar Bosnich).
Conversely,
if we look at Manchester United's goalkeepers when they did not win the Premier
League, we can see chaff like a fading Fabien Barthez, Tim 'Howler' Howard, Roy
'Cataclysm' Carroll and an inexperienced David de Gea.
If we
take a look at Arsenal, the other previously dominant force in the Premier
League, they have suffered with the likes of Vito Mannone, Wojciech Szczesny,
Lukasz Fabianski, Manuel Almunia and David Ospina...
But what
does all this subtle analysis mean when divining which teams can win future
Premier League titles?
Assuming that
an excellent goalkeeper is a given for any League winning team then we can say
that the following teams and their goalkeepers are potential winners in the
2017/18 Season:
Chelsea -
Thibaut Courtois
Tottenham
Hotspurs - Hugo Lloris
Manchester
United - David de Gea
or even Leicester City - boy Schmeichel
Arsenal,
Liverpool, or Manchester City? Nah they are miles away with their
net-guardians!
Think on
it football fans, does it ring true?
All the
Best!
