David de Gea finally ended his penalty hoodoo by saving his first in five years from Mark Noble in Manchester United’s 2-1 win over West Ham… ending a record of 41 spot-kicks without a stop.
The question marks around de Gea’s penalty-saving ability were well founded: until Noble, the Spaniard had not saved a penalty outside a shoot-out since April 2016. That was in the FA Cup semi-final against then-Everton striker Romelu Lukaku.
De Gea has to go back even further to October 2014, a whopping seven years ago, to find his last Premier League penalty save in open play, from Leighton Baines, also of Everton.
Since the 2016 save, de Gea had missed 22 penalties from open play.
By a strange coincidence Mark Noble hasn’t missed a penalty since 2016. His previous miss came against Burnley on December 14th 2016 when he failed to beat Tom Heaton.
He missed another in 2014 against Spurs on Aug 16, 2014 and another Apr 25, 2009 against Chelsea. His only other miss came against Wolves the same year on Jan 28, 2009.
In all he has converted 38 penalties successfully, missing five in his career.