David de Gea cemented his place in Manchester United’s history books on Sunday afternoon as helped his side to a 2-0 win over rivals Leeds United.
Erik ten Hag’s men were desperate to return to winning ways in the Premier League, having failed to beat the Yorkshire club four days ago despite recovering from a two-goal deficit at Old Trafford.
It looked like Leeds were going to be holding United to a draw but Marcus Rashford’s unstoppable second-half header set the foundation before Alejandro Garnacho put it beyond Leeds’ reach.
The win means that De Gea has now kept a clean sheet for the Reds on 178 separate occasions – equalling Peter Schmeichel’s tally. He also become the first United goalkeeper to make 400 appearances in the Premier League. Speaking after the game, the Spaniard reacted to the vital victory and the record.
“You saw how much it meant at the end of the game,” De Gea is quoted as saying by the BBC.
“The fans, the players. We deserved to win at home but today we did. Great game, we knew if we could keep a clean sheet we would win the game so we did it. We fought until the end like a team.
“Players like Harry [Maguire], he has not been playing as much as he can. He played today and he played fantastic so that means that the team is playing strong.”
Quizzed further on the buzz of reaching the stunning landmark, De Gea was quick to put the team before himself.
“Today wasn’t about that,” he said. “It was about winning the game and we did it so now I can enjoy the 400 Premier League games. It’s great to come here, play like we did today. Clean sheet, three massive points and 400 games perfect day.”
De Gea has less than six months remaining on his current contract at the club and the option to extend that deal for another 12 months has not been exercised yet.
It’s believed that the club is in talks with De Gea’s representatives over a new contract but the Spain international will need to take a sizeable pay cut.
