The EA Sports Index - De Gea top keeper?

So, as we go into the fourth weekend of the new Premier League season, David De Gea is officially the best goalkeeper in the league.

Or at least he is according to the EA Sports Player Performance Index, the official player rating index for the Barclays Premier League.

And statistics don’t lie. Except when they do. In this case, they clearly do. In fact, if you believe everything you read in the press, David De Gea is actually the worst goalkeeper in the league.

Now I’m not saying De Gea is the worst keeper in the division. Far from it. But based on the three matches so far he has been at fault for two of the three goals Manchester United have conceded this season (Shane Long’s for West Brom and Theo Walcott’s for Arsenal); hardly scintillating form.

The EA Sports Index takes a number of things into account when calculating a player’s performance.

1)      Winning Performance – i.e. the success of the team as a whole. Fortunately for De Gea Manchester United’s attacking players have been in fine form this season and the team has maximum points from the first three fixtures.

2)      Player’s Performance per match – points are awarded for the individual’s positive influence on the game. Perhaps surprisingly, De Gea has actually made more saves than any other keeper in the league (17). This has naturally boosted his score, as has his penalty save against Arsenal.

3)      Appearances – As a goalkeeper, De Gea has played every minute of the season so far, as have most keepers in the division.

4)      Goals Scored – He’s no Jose Luis Chilavert.

5)      Assists – Man United are not exactly a route one side.

6)      Clean Sheets- Manchester United and De Gea have one from three games.

So, based on this points scoring system, it is clear that De Gea has achieved points for Manchester United’s successes as a team as well as his remarkably high number of saves. On this basis, his place at the top of the rankings is probably justified.

However, while the Index does take points away for negative actions (yellow/red cards, shots off target) this does not seem to apply for goalkeeping mistakes. There is no doubt that De Gea should have saved both Long and Walcott’s shots yet it seems as though, in the EA Sports Index, he was not punished for these errors.

I’m not one to lay into any player, particularly a young goalkeeper, new to English football but there is not one person in the country that would say that David De Gea has been the best performing goalkeeper this season.

It is the Index, not the Spaniard that I am questioning here.

It is worth pointing out that only three matches have been played so far and hopefully the player rating tables will start to take a more accurate shape a few weeks down the line.

In the other positions the index does actually seem to be slightly more understandable, with the stars of the two Manchester teams dominating, quite rightly I would say.

Ashley Young and David Silva occupy the top two midfielders spots and Rooney and Dzeko the strikers.

Jose Bosingwa is top of the defenders, after an impressive start to the season and it is refreshing to see the likes of Steven Taylor and Stephen Ward, in the top 5, representing the so-called smaller clubs.

However, there do still seem to be slight anomalies with Shane Long a notable absentee from the top 10 strikers, despite playing every minute for West Brom and scoring goals against the defences of Manchester United and Chelsea.

Agbonlahor instead sits in sixth place, with just the one goal to his name and two 0-0 draws for Aston Villa in their opening fixtures in his other appearances.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the Index will become a reliable source for settling disputes about who the best players are. I imagine this is something I shall come back to as the season progresses.

Until then, if David De Gea is looking for the confidence and protection Sir Alex Ferguson says he needs, he could do a lot worse than keeping his eye on the Premier League’s official player ratings.