Making De Gea while the sun shines
KING DAVID CASHING IN ON HENDERSON LAY-OFF
DAVID DE GEA has taken full advantage of Dean Henderson’s absence to establish himself as Manchester United’s No.1 goalkeeper once again.
After a torrid end to last season, in which he was replaced by Henderson in the Premier League and failed to save 11 penalties in United’s Europa League Final shoot-out defeat by Villarreal, De Gea was set to start the new campaign on the bench.
Earning £375,000 a week, the Spain international would have been the
Premier League’s most expensive substitute after a decade spent as
United’s unrivalled firstchoice keeper.
But Henderson testing positive for Covid-19 and taking time to get back to full fitness opened the door for De Gea, 30, who used the opportunity to remind boss Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer and United of his enduring class.
His stunning double save in Sunday’s 1-0 win at Wolves showed him at his very best and drew high praise from one of his predecessors, former United keeper Peter
Schmeichel.
“That has got to be the best save of the season already,” tweeted
Schmeichel, with three applause emojis to underline just how impressed he was by De
Gea’s match-winning second-half exploits.
Team-mate Bruno
Fernandes also took to social media to pay tribute, posting a picture of
De Gea with an image of a wall to show how tough it is to score past him.
De Gea’s latest heroics came after he secured a point for United in a 1-1 draw at Southampton, producing a majestic one-on-one save to deny Adam Armstrong a winner for Saints.
The only goals he has conceded so far this season are an unstoppable long-range effort from Luke Ayling in a 5-1 win over Leeds and a deflected strike at Southampton. Reflecting on his save at Molineux, De Gea said: “To be honest, it was super quick, I didn’t have much time to think.
“I made the first save and I saw the guy coming again so I just put my whole body there and I made the double save. It was a big moment in the game because after that we scored our goal. “That’s why I’m here, to help the team all the time, to try to give 100 per cent every game and Sunday was a good one.”
Raphael Varane, a £41m summer signing from Real Madrid, made his debut against Wolves and looked assured as he helped United keep a clean sheet.
The centre-back said: “I was very, very happy to be here and to help the team get this victory.
“The Premier League is very intense. The game is very fast and you know when you play this game, you’re very concentrated and it’s very intense.
“I came here for that feeling. The atmosphere is fantastic and the game is very fast. You have a lot of action during the game.
“You have to be focused and very concentrated because it never stops.
“It’s attack, attack, counter-attack and it’s very fast.”