5 Premier League goalkeepers with the most clean sheets in a single season

Being a goalkeeper is probably the most difficult and most underrated role anyone can have on a football pitch. All it takes is one slip up and you go from hero to zero in a flash.

Football, 'The Beautiful Game,' as we've known it, is budging more and more towards becoming an attacking game with each passing day with managers devising innovative strategies to put pressure on the opposition's defense, especially the goalie.

So, it is easy to conclude that the most difficult task in the modern fast-paced and aggressive era of football is to keep a clean sheet.

They say scoring goals wins you games. Well, the thing is you can always score more goals - you have 90 minutes plus injury time, but once you concede a goal, the clean sheet is gone for good and all you can do is wait for the next match.

Goalkeepers who can manage to fight off all the odds stacked against them and make a habit of keeping clean sheets consistently, end up establishing themselves as icons.

The Premier League has seen a lot of such icons plying their trade between the sticks for some of the best clubs over the years.

So, we take a look at the top 5 goalkeepers with the highest number of clean sheets in the Premier League's history.

#5 Pepe Reina - 20 Clean Sheets (2005-06 season)

Pepe Reina was the top goalkeeper in England for three consecutive seasons.

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, who now plays for Italian club AC Milan, was at one point of time at the top of the Premier League because of his brilliant shot-stopping abilities.

He won the PL Golden Glove award on three consecutive occasions from 2006 to 2008, managing to keep a career-best 20 clean sheets in the 2005-06 season for the Reds as they finished third in the league.

Till date, no other Liverpool #1 has managed to achieve the figure, but the Brazilian Alisson Becker can change things if he manages a shutout in 5 of the remaining 10 games of the season.

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#4 David Seaman - 20 Clean Sheets (1993-94 season)

David Seaman, who is widely regarded as one of the best players to have donned the #1 jersey for Arsenal, made some memorable saves during his days at Highbury and Emirates.

Seaman, who is England's second-most capped goalkeeper, after Peter Shilton, had 20 clean sheets to his name in 39 appearances for the Gunners in the early days of the Premier League in the 1993-94 season.

Though he won the league title two times in his glorious 13-year career with the London based club, he parted ways with them before the team went on to make history in the 2003-04 season under French manager Arsene Wenger, when they lifted the league trophy following an unbeaten run throughout the season.

He was forced to retire from competitive football due to a recurring shoulder injury in 2004.

#3 Edwin van der Sar - 21 Clean Sheets (2008-09 season)

Chelsea v Manchester United - UEFA Champions League Quarter Final

Edwin van der Sar, arguably one of the best goalkeepers in the long list of extraordinary shot-stoppers who've starred for Manchester United, was an absolute rock for his club in the 6 seasons he played for them.

The Dutch international is one of the most decorated and successful footballers ever, having won 27 major trophies in his career, mainly at Ajax and Manchester United.

But it was in the 2008-09 season that he would go on to keep a personal best 21 clean sheets for the Red Devils, also setting a world league clean sheet record by not conceding a single goal for 1,311 minutes in the season.

Current goalkeeper David De Gea was the first player to win the Golden Glove award for Manchester United since his departure, as he kept 18 clean sheets last season.

#2 Peter Schmeichel - 21 Clean Sheets (1994-95 season)

When talking about the best goalkeepers that have graced the Premier League with their presence, we can't overlook the legendary Peter Schmeichel, the only goalkeeper in the English top flight history to have won a European treble.

The Danish international who also won the EURO 1992 with his national side, won everything there is to win in English football during his playing days with Manchester United.

In the fledgling days of the Premier League, when teams used to play 42 games a season, he kept 21 clean sheets in 1994-95. But, unfortunately he saw his heroics in between the sticks undone by a rampant Alan Shearer, whose 34 league goals propelled Blackburn Rovers to an unlikely league triumph that season by a single point.

Nonetheless, he will always be remembered as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time in the league's history.

#1 Petr Cech - 24 Clean Sheets (2004-05 season)

Petr Cech has won the Premier League four times with his previous club Chelsea

Finally, we have reached the end of our list and not surprisingly we find the best goalkeeper of the Premier League era, Czech international Petr Cech on the top of this list.

Cech moved to the Premier League with Chelsea in the 2004-05 season from French club Rennes and what a first season he had with the Blues.

Following an injury to their first choice goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini, the then manager Jose Mourinho, who also joined the club that season promoted Cech to the first team.

The 36-year-old made the most of the opportunity given to him and had a record-breaking 2004-05 season in which he kept a league record 24 clean sheets and conceded just 15 goals in the entire season, as he went on to win the Premier League Golden Glove award.

He has gone on to win the Golden Glove award four times, the most by any goalie in the league, also becoming the only keeper in the league to win the award with two different clubs in 2016 as he kept 16 clean sheets for his current club Arsenal.

Edited by Arvind Sriram