Seven clean sheets in ten Premier League games has put David Raya on course to break a record that has belonged to Petr Cech since 2004-05, and the way Arsenal are winning makes it a real possibility.
David Raya had to be alert to an early low drive from Elliot Stroud, and was rarely troubled after that as Martin Odegaard’s late rebound beat Hull City 1-0 at the Emirates on Saturday. It was a seventh league shutout of the season for the Spaniard, and it kept Arsenal six points clear at the top going into the international break.
That is a clean sheet in 70% of his league games. Kept up over a full 38-game season, it works out at around 26, two more than the 24 that Cech kept for Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in 2004-05, still the Premier League record more than two decades on.
How has Raya kept seven clean sheets in ten games?
The short answer is that Arsenal have turned narrow wins into a habit. Three of their last four league wins have finished 1-0, against Nottingham Forest, Liverpool at Anfield and Hull, and the other was a 2-0 against Everton. Seven of their nine league wins this season have come without conceding.
The only league games in which Raya has been beaten are the 2-1 win over Chelsea, the comeback against Leeds United and the 3-0 defeat at Brighton in September, still the champions’ only league loss of the campaign.
He has done more than stand behind a good back line, too. At the Stadium of Light in September, with the game goalless, he saved Enzo Le Fée’s penalty, and Bruno Guimarães scored at the other end two minutes later. Without that save, one of those seven clean sheets does not exist.
It also says something about where Arsenal are. The attack has not scored more than twice in a league game since the 3-0 win over Coventry City on the opening day, so the defence has carried more of the load than in any recent season. That is exactly why every Raya clean sheet has been worth three points.
What does the record actually need?
Our own maths is simple. To equal Cech’s 24, Raya needs 17 more clean sheets from Arsenal’s last 28 league games. To beat it, he needs 18, which is a clean sheet in roughly two of every three remaining matches.
That is a slightly lower rate than he is running at now, so the target is realistic on paper. The catch is that he has to stay fit and keep his place for the whole season, and that the fixture list is about to get a lot harder.
Raya has history in this area, but even his best year fell short of 20. Here is how his Premier League clean sheet totals at Arsenal have gone:
| Season | League clean sheets | What it earned |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | 16 | Golden Glove, outright |
| 2024-25 | 13 | Golden Glove, shared with Matz Sels |
| 2025-26 | 19 | Golden Glove, title, equalled the club record |
| 2026-27 | 7 (after 10 games) | On course for about 26 |
The 19 last season matched the club’s Premier League record, set by David Seaman in 1993-94 and again in 1998-99. It also made Raya only the fourth goalkeeper to win the Golden Glove in three seasons in a row, after Pepe Reina, Joe Hart and Ederson.
Why Cech’s 24 has lasted so long
Plenty of great goalkeepers have had great seasons since 2005 without getting near it. Cech, who later won the Golden Glove in an Arsenal shirt too, in 2015-16, has always put it down to the whole team rather than himself.
Speaking at his Premier League Hall of Fame induction, Cech said: “We as a team took pride in getting clean sheets. It was not only the defenders and goalkeepers, it was everyone chipping in to make sure that if we can’t win, we don’t lose.”
He added: “Those clean sheets were the decisive factor in us winning the title.” Swap Chelsea for Arsenal and that could be a description of Mikel Arteta’s side this autumn.
The run that will decide it
If Raya is going to stay on this pace, the three weeks after the break will tell us a lot. Arsenal go to Newcastle United on Saturday 21 November, host Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League three days later, and then welcome Manchester City to the Emirates on Sunday 29 November.
City have lost their last three league games, so the title race and the clean sheet chase meet in the same fixture. As we covered after the weekend, Arsenal are now six points clear of Man City, and a shutout in that game would do more for both than anything else.
The motivation is there. Raya has spoken about how the pain of the Champions League final defeat to PSG never leaves this group, and a defence that hates conceding is the best tool he has.
Can David Raya beat Petr Cech’s clean sheet record?
We think he has a genuine chance, and a better one than any goalkeeper has had for years. The pace is right, the defence in front of him has conceded in only three league games, and Arteta’s side are built to win games 1-0, as they showed again in the Arsenal 1-0 Hull City win.
The danger is the same thing that makes it possible. A team that scores so few has no room for a late equaliser or a deflected goal, and one bad month can wipe out the margin. If Arsenal’s attack starts to click, Raya’s job gets easier, because opponents will have to come out and chase games.
For now, seven from ten is a better rate than he managed in any of his three Golden Glove seasons. If he is still on that rate when the clocks go forward in March, Cech’s 21-year-old record will be in real trouble.
