Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea is “very happy” with his form and has his sights set on breaking Alex Stepney’s record number of appearances for the club.
Always a favourite among Unibet football betting fans, the Spaniard moved to Old Trafford from Atletico Madrid on a five-year deal in the summer of 2011 as a replacement for Edwin van der Sar. The £18.9million signing struggled to live up to his price tag in his early days in England. He was labelled not commanding or strong enough and failed to cement a first-team place in his first 18 months as a United player.
However, his performances in 2012-13 earned him a place in the Premier League team of the year and he has started all but one game this season under new Red Devils boss David Moyes. De Gea is set to bring up his 100th appearance for United at Tottenham on Sunday. However, he is not satisfied with that figure and is already thinking about Stepney’s record of 539 games as a United keeper.
“The record is a lot of games. You never know, though. At the moment, that figure seems very high but I’ll take it one game at a time,” the 23-year-old told the Daily Mirror.
“I hope to play as many games as I can for Manchester United and, who knows, maybe one day I will reach that number and go even higher.
“I’m very happy with my form. I feel like this is a particularly good moment in my career right now and I hope to continue.”
De Gea has helped United recover from a poor start in the Premier League to sit sixth, seven points off the pace. He has kept only three clean sheets, though, a record he will undoubtedly want to improve as the campaign evolves.