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Goalkeepers are truly one of a kind. The fact that they so often are overlooked when it comes to raking in the plaudits despite being absolutely crucial to a team's success and failures is quite pitiful. It's resulted in FIFA now instituting a Men's Best Goalkeeper award, which will be decided on October 23rd.
The opening two months of the league season have provided us plenty of surprises, with plenty of impressive performances in goal this season.
Here are the 5 best goalkeepers currently
#5 Ederson - Manchester City
The Brazilian became the most expensive goalkeeper in the world this summer, and has quietly begun to repay the faith Pep Guardiola's Manchester City have placed in him. Ederson has been a huge improvement over Claudio Bravo, with his immediate adjustment to the Premier League being a huge bonus.
Ederson has already shown that he's not afraid of the Premier League's physicality, with the Brazilian already on the wrong end of Sadio Mane's studs in his face. He's back with a skull helmet, but that has barely affected his assured performances so far.
Pep Guardiola's entire strategy around bringing in Claudio Bravo last season was distribution, and with an accuracy of 87% so far, Ederson is one of the best in world football. 3 cleans sheets out of the 6 games he's played so far are a promising base to build around.
#4 Thibaut Courtois - Chelsea
Chelsea's lanky Belgian has already conceded 5 goals in 6 games this season, but that is balanced out by the amount of saves he's had to make. The Blues have been strangely open at the back this season, conceding almost 1.5x the shots per game that they possessed last season.
Courtois has been called upon far more often this year, and he's responded - the Belgian has looked rather assured in goal, with improved performances compared to last season, where he was bailed out by his defence after a couple of nervy moments.
Antonio Conte will be glad that his keeper continues to show signs of improvement, as his age ensures that Chelsea will have a top keeper for years to come. However, the capacity for a gaffe still remains, with Courtois making one on national duty recently, and only if he irons that final negative point out, will Courtois be considered the best.
#3 Gianluigi Buffon - Juventus
The Italian legend would be higher up this list ordinarily, but a less-than-stellar start to the season has seen a few people begin to question whether his powers are waning. Buffon still remains the best goalkeeper in the world in a technical sense, but his ever-slowing reflexes have been caught out this season - with the game against Barcelona this season coming to mind.
The Italian is without Leonardo Bonucci ahead of him this season, and has managed only 2 clean sheets so far, although his stellar distribution accuracy remains at the high standards he's set previously - 82%.
Buffon has needed to make 11 saves this season from just 6 games, a higher rate than that of last year, although his shot-stopping accuracy is going down. If anyone can return to his high levels it is Buffon, who has time and again come back whenever questioned.
#2 Manuel Neuer - Bayern Munich
Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that... but Manuel Neuer's quality can only really be gauged by how much Bayern Munich have struggled this season. The 3-0 loss to PSG that resulted in Carlo Ancelotti's sacking was dominated by the nagging thought that had Neuer been in goal, he may have prevented at least a couple of the goals.
The German recently revealed that he's had to play with a metal plate in his right foot for the last 9 years, but it seems that all of his limbs are made of iron sometimes.
Neuer's jaw-dropping stops when a goal looks certain has always helped Bayern to ensure the narrow games swing their way, but this time around, the Bavarians have been on the wrong end of a fair few results. Bayern can only hope and pray that the German custodian returns sooner rather than later, so that they can continue to do what they do best in the Bundesliga : dominate.
#1 David de Gea - Manchester United
7 games in and David de Gea has kept 6 clean sheets already. The Spaniard has always been behind a less than stellar defence for much of his Manchester United career, but Jose Mourinho has managed to slightly tighten the ship. Statistically, however, De Gea has faced around the same number of shots this season, and has kept up his save rate, making 15 so far.
His ability to pull off jaw-dropping saves remains, which has allowed Manchester United to weather a couple of nervous moments midway through the game, before the game is made safe by substitutes coming on.
United will always remain a bit nervous about his performances, as that will only tempt Real Madrid all that much more, but if De Gea keeps this up, he will be a big part of Manchester United winning the Premier League yet again.
