David Raya did not have much to do at Villa Park on Monday night, and in reality, that is the point.
Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Aston Villa brought another shutout for the Spaniard and a significant landmark: 50 Premier League clean sheets for Arsenal in just 109 starts.
Raya’s Sensational Arsenal Record
No goalkeeper has reached 50 league clean sheets for Arsenal faster. Across the Premier League as a whole, only four have done it quicker for a single club: Petr Cech at Chelsea in 82 starts, Pepe Reina at Liverpool in 92, Ederson at Manchester City in 106 and Peter Schmeichel at Manchester United in 108.
Raya has therefore rapidly arrived at 50 just one start slower than Schmeichel.
More strikingly, since joining Arsenal in 2023, no goalkeeper across Europe’s big five leagues has kept more league clean sheets.
Three seasons, three Golden Gloves
The numbers behind Raya’s Arsenal career are remarkably consistent.
He kept 16 Premier League clean sheets in 2023-24, winning the Golden Glove in his first season at the club. He followed that with 13 in 2024-25, sharing the award with Nottingham Forest’s Matz Sels. Interestingly, that was the fewest clean sheets in this category.
Then came his best season: Raya recorded 19 clean sheets in 37 appearances in 2025-26, earning a third consecutive Golden Glove and helping Arsenal win the Premier League title. Only Pepe Reina, Joe Hart and Ederson had previously won the award three seasons running.
Those 19 shutouts also matched Arsenal's Premier League record for a goalkeeper in a single season, matching David Seaman’s totals from 1993-94 and 1998-99.
Arsenal conceded only 27 league goals last season, comfortably the best defensive record in the division, against an expected goals conceded figure of 28.30. Six opponents failed to register a single shot on target.
Raya, consequently, made only 60 saves across the campaign. Eighteen Premier League goalkeepers made more, yet none kept more clean sheets.
That pattern has continued into 2026-27. Arsenal have opened with two wins and two clean sheets, while allowing just 11 shots, one on target and 0.52 xG across their first two matches.
Raya’s half-century belongs to the goalkeeper, but the numbers also describe what Arsenal have become: a side for whom conceding a meaningful chance is increasingly an event.
