David Raya has guaranteed at least a share of the Premier League’s 2025/26 Golden Glove, and he’s in an excellent position to win it outright.
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Manchester City’s 3-3 draw with Everton on Monday night had a number of implications for the Premier League title race, but the other moment of significance in the contest was Everton’s opening goal.
With Thierno Barry turning home past Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 68th minute, Donnarumma’s hopes of finishing the season with five consecutive clean sheets came to an early end.
As a result, Donnarumma’s maximum total is 17, and no other goalkeeper can achieve a total higher than 15 except David Raya – who already has 17.
That means the worst-case scenario is that Arsenal concede in every remaining game, and Donnarumma keeps four clean sheets. But even then, both goalkeepers would have 17 clean sheets, and Raya would at least share the Golden Glove.
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If Donnarumma concedes one more goal, or misses one more game, or if Raya keeps one more clean sheet, then the Arsenal goalkeeper will win the award outright. But he’s already mathematically guaranteed winning at least a share of it.
As a result, Raya has now won the Golden Glove for three seasons in a row, also earning the accolade with 16 clean sheets in 2023/24 and 13 clean sheets in 2024/25. 17 is now Raya’s personal best, with three more games to improve on that tally.
Only three other goalkeepers have ever won the award three times in a row – Pepe Reina (2005-08), Joe Hart (2010-13), and Ederson (2019-22). Raya has now joined that club, and he has the chance to be the first to win it four times in a row next season.
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Plenty of credit should go to the defence in front of Raya as well, with William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes proving a particularly difficult combination to beat over the last few years.
But goalkeepers rarely get their moment in the spotlight, so congratulations to Raya, and good luck to him on keeping five more clean sheets this season!
For what it’s worth, the Spanish goalkeeper has already won the award for the most Champions League clean sheets. No other goalkeeper still in the competition has more than four (with two games remaining at most), and Raya has eight.
