Newcastle are without Nick Pope for Sunday's Carabao Cup final against Man Utd, live on Sky Sports; Pope has kept 12 clean sheets in the Premier League, two more than David de Gea; David Raya and Bernd Leno have been enjoying good seasons for Brentford and Fulham respectively
Thursday 23 February 2023 11:38, UK
It was a withering putdown amid a regular Premier League weekend dominated by the trials and tribulations of a top flight goalkeeper.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery chided his World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez for allowing Arsenal an easy fourth goal in their Premier League game on Saturday after the Argentina goalkeeper left his net to help seek a last-ditch equaliser.
"I've never told my goalkeeper to go to score one goal in the 92nd minute," said Emery.
"Because maybe, I don't know the data, maybe you score one goal in 100. And maybe 20 times they do the transition and they score goals 10 times. And today it happened. We can lose 2-3, but 2-4 it's not good."
In an extraordinary finale, first Martinez scored an unfortunate own goal after the ball bounced off his head via the crossbar from a Jorginho shot - drawing joyful mockery from fans of Arsenal, his former club.
Then he joined team-mates up front in the dying seconds, leaving his goal open for Arsenal to break and bag their fourth from Gabriel Martinelli into an empty net for a 4-2 win.
On the same day, Nick Pope was losing his head at St James' Park after handling outside his penalty area. The Newcastle man has made 24 keeper sweepings this term - more than any of his peers.
Twenty-three have been accurate. The one exception lost him his place in the Carabao Cup final.
Pope had hoped to face David de Gea this weekend, the Manchester United goalkeeper who levelled Peter Schmeichel's club record of 180 clean sheets in Sunday's 3-0 win over Leicester.
Newcastle's hopes of a first major trophy since 1969 could rest on Loris Karius, whose last competitive game of football was in February 2021 for Union Berlin against Hoffenheim in Germany's Bundesliga.
So just how big a loss will Pope be? With the help of Opta, Sky Sports takes a look at how the Premier League's goalkeepers have performed so far this season.
Pope's 12 clean sheets has him top of the pile, despite his failure to record a shutout in any of his last three fixtures.
De Gea is second on the list with 10, two of those coming in the past two matches to provide the Spaniard with the perfect preparation heading into Sunday's Wembley showpiece.
Arsenal's Aaron Ramsdale is in third place on nine clean sheets, while at the other end of the scale Southampton goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu has managed just two in 23 starts.
The 'goals prevented rate' is the number of goals that a goalkeeper was expected to concede as a proportion of the number of goals they actually conceded.
Liverpool's Alisson has impressed, conceding on 26 occasions despite an expected goals on target conceded figure of 35.8 - a league-high difference of 9.8.
According to the statistics, Alisson has prevented at least two more goals than any other Premier League goalkeeper with Fulham's Bernd Leno's 7.74 goals prevented next on the list.
Southampton's position at the bottom of the table is in part due to their lowest big chance conversion rate of 20.8 - but it is in both boxes where the Saints have underperformed.
Goalkeeper Bazunu has conceded 40 goals in 23 starts - only Leicester's Danny Ward has conceded more (41) - but Bazunu ought to have kept more out based on the quality of the chances he has faced.
After being voted Portsmouth's player of the season, Bazunu has undergone a steep learning curve this term in mustering the lowest save percentage of any goalkeeper to have started more than 10 games (56.52), while he is nearly 10 down on the expected goals on target conceded.
Surprisingly, Manchester City's Ederson is in the bottom three having only fared marginally better on a lowly 57.89 with his 33 saves from 24 starts.
It was during Project Restart that Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga was mocked and labelled as one of worst goalkeepers in the history of the Premier League.
Kepa had recorded a save percentage of just 54.5 per cent and was part of the west London club's worst defensive record in over 20 years.
Indeed, based on Opta's expected goals on target data during the 2019/20 season, Kepa conceded 11 Premier League goals more than the model would expect the average goalkeeper to allow - the worst figure of any keeper in the division.
But fast-forward to the present day, and it is clear to see why Graham Potter has made the ball-playing Spaniard his No 1 choice even in spite of Edouard Mendy's ongoing fitness issues.
Given he has only played 1,305 minutes, Kepa actually boasts the best goals prevented rate this term of 1.79 per game - superior to Alisson - while his 81.67 save percentage surpasses that of Pope (78.26).
Thomas Frank has been singing David Raya's praises for some time, long before his call-up to the Spain squad for last year's World Cup.
The Brentford goalkeeper has made 100 saves this season, more than any other goalkeeper, which indicates opponents are being forced to shoot from range, with Fulham's Leno in second place on 92 saves.
This was the case for Pope when he was at Burnley, with defender Ben Mee the common thread between Pope and Raya, given the former Burnley skipper is now playing in front of Raya at Brentford.
Following a high-profile error in the defeat at Newcastle earlier in the season, Frank said of Raya: "One of his biggest strengths is his ability in games, from training-to-training, to move on quickly and don't get affected by it.
"That is a key thing as a footballer in general, even more important as a goalkeeper. Maybe he didn't play it short the next three passes but the second half he did again and that is key.
"It is like when you fall over on the bike, you need to get up and then you move forward again."
Given he has made more saves than any of the sides battling relegation, Brentford's best chance of keeping their European aspirations on track will be to provide greater protection to Raya.
Higo Lloris has been performing at the highest level for many years, and showcased his qualities as France just fell short of a second successive World Cup in Qatar - but his club form has been shaky at best this term.
An incredible servant to Tottenham for a decade, Lloris made high-profile mistakes against Newcastle, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Manchester City which have directly led to goals conceded and dropped points.
On his erratic form this season, Lloris told the Evening Standard: "I can't complain. You're a professional and you just follow a rhythm. But obviously when you're involved with the national team and you go until the last day of the World Cup, you come back and miss mental freshness. But you need to get back on track and help your team.
"When you look at the Arsenal goal [against Spurs in January], I can be in a good position but the deflection hit the ball on my chest and with the spin it goes over [the line]. It's something that even if I wanted to do on purpose, I can't. Even last night, when you look at the third [City] goal, a deflection makes the ball go over my knee.
"At any moment I try to anticipate, just setting and waiting. There are a lot of things like that happening to our team. It's a period where we need to stick together, keep working and hopefully bring the luck back."
Arsenal's Ramsdale has made as many errors leading to shots as Lloris, but conceded only on half as many occasions.
