adminDavid de Gea has earned Manchester United NINE points on his own this season . . . without him Louis van Gaal’s side would be in the bottom half of the Premier League Brian Clough famously used to say his England goalkeeper Peter Shilton was worth 18 points a season when Nottingham Forest were winning league titles and European Cups.
Well, David de Gea could beat even that — on current form he is going to earn Manchester United an extra 24 points in this campaign.
In the last two months, De Gea has helped turn likely defeats against Everton and Arsenal into victories, and enabled them to draw with Chelsea and beat Stoke City.
Those extra nine points won buy United in the first 14 matches equate to 24 points over a 38-game season.
And without the super Spaniard, United would be sitting in 11th place with 16 points — not in a top-four Champions League spot.
This is how De Gea’s influence can be broken down
October 5 — Man Utd 2 Everton 1 Points saved: Three
It is no exaggeration to say United could have lost, let alone drawn, against Everton had it not been for De Gea’s heroics.
His first vital intervention was to save a penalty from Leighton Baines — diving low to his right to get a strong hand to the spot-kick, the first one Baines had missed in 15 penalty attempts.
Then, with Everton pushing for a late equaliser, De Gea made a flying save to tip away a shot from Leon Osman and followed up with an incredible leap to get his fingertips to a Bryan Ovido half-volley that was heading for the postage stamp in the very top corner.
He was immediately mobbed by Marcos Rojo and other United defenders while Everton boss Roberto Martinez put his head in his hands on the touchline.
October 26 – Man Utd 1 Chelsea 1 Points saved: One
Robin van Persie’s injury-time equaliser gave United a massive pyschological lift for the remainder of the season, but Chelsea would already have been out of sight if not for De Gea.
The Spaniard showed good judgement and reflexes to save from Didier Drogba and Eden Hazard in one-against-one situations, Hazard couldn’t believe he had been denied with his clever low finish to the corner.
Even more critically, once Chelsea had gone in front through Drogba, De Gea kept out a rising shot from Willian that would have given the unassailable 2-0 lead. Not only did he stop the 25-yard drive, he caught it — and was able to immediately launch a United counter-attack.
November 22 — Arsenal 1 Man Utd 2 Points saved: Three
Both managers said afterwards Arsenal had been the better team at The Emirates. The home side ended up empty-handed though because of their nine shots on target, only one beat De Gea — and that was a late effort from Oliver Giroud when it was too late.
De Gea wasn’t even a guaranteed starter after dislocating his finger on international duty with Spain, but you couldn’t tell as he made a string of saves, most notably from Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and his former United team-mate Danny Welbeck.
December 2 — Man Utd 2 Stoke City 1 Points saved: Two
Praised by manager Louis van Gaal for keeping his “concentration and focus” after two fantastic late saves to earn United a win having previously been a spectator for 89 minutes.
First, he somehow managed to block a bullet header from Biram Mame Diouf right on the line with a combination of arms, legs and body when the Stoke forward couldn’t have been more than four yards out.
And with Stoke pressing, he then stopped a fierce drive by Marko Arnautovic at point-blank range.
TOTAL POINTS SAVED BY DE GEA — NINE. — DailyMail.co.uk
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