Liverpool's Alisson has been superb - but a rival goalkeeper has been Premier League's best so far

When it comes to Premier League goalkeepers, two things seem to have fallen into common acceptance this season – firstly, that new Manchester United number one André Onana has had a tough start to life at Old Trafford, and secondly that Liverpool’cs Alisson has been the best in the league so far. But do those ideas stack up when run up against the raw numbers? Has the ‘eye test’ been lying to us yet again?

Let’s start with Alisson – because yes, he has been superb. Nobody can better his save percentage of 78.8% and only Luton Town’s Thomas Kaminski has been preventing expected goals at a better rate – Alisson has prevented an estimated 3.4xG’s worth of goals. The Brazilian has been on fine form at Anfield, and has only underlined his credentials as one of the best shot stoppers in the world. He’s even misplaced just the one short pass all season. That one bad ball touch must annoy him a little bit.

But what about Onana at United? He came under severe criticism for several errors early in the season, including giving the ball away against Galatasaray in a position that led to a penalty during the 3-2 defeat at Old Trafford, and allowing Mathias Jensen’s shot to squirm softly beneath him against Brentford.

Apart from those more obvious errors, there was also a lot of discussion about his positioning and accusations that the way he dived to stop shots reduced his chances of reaching them. Onana came to Old Trafford as a Champions League runner-up and with a reputation as one of the best ‘keepers in the global game – but that reputation didn’t seem to be holding up.

But is that really a fair assessment of his performances under Erik ten Hag? Looking at the statistics, it would seem not. His save percentage is 78.8%, and he has prevented an estimated 3.4xG of goals for the opposition – both numbers identical to Alisson, except that of course he’s faced more shots on goal. In other words, when it comes to the basic art of shot-stopping and preventing the ball from finding its way into the back of the net, he’s been slightly more effective than the goalkeeper who’s accepted as the best in the league.

It's no surprise that his numbers are on an upwards trajectory after the last few weeks – that rocky start seems to be well behind him. He was brilliant against Everton on Sunday, making several superb stops and keeping an improbably clean sheet (he has, incidentally, now kept five of them, tied with Crystal Palace’s Sam Johnstone for the most in the Premier League). Whatever uncertainty had crept into his game as he settled in seems to have dissipated completely, and he has been playing like one of the best goalkeepers in the world – it’s just that the conversation doesn’t seem to have caught up yet.

United have won five of their last six Premier League games, although that seemingly strong run of form does rather handily omit defeats in the League Cup and Champions League – and overall, performances have not substantially improved, but Onana has been winning them games almost by himself. Everton had an xG of 2.4 last weekend but the Cameroonian’s excellence, along with a couple of bad misses, kept them to zero actual goals.

Since that mistake against Brentford, Onana has been unbelievably good, whether he’s keeping the score down against Manchester City (who won 3-0 win an xG of 4.0) or keeping implausible clean sheets against Everton, FC København and Fulham. Were it not for his performances, heaven knows where they’d be in the table – and when Onana leaves for the Africa Cup of Nations in January, we might find out just how important he’s become.

Of course, while you can make an argument from the numbers that Onana has been very fractionally better than Alisson, you can use the same statistics to make an argument for Luton’s Kaminski – a limited goalkeeper who has faults and flaws when it comes to handling crosses or his distribution, but also a simply astonishing shot-stopper. You can also find ways to put David Raya on top, if you like, because he’s up there for clean sheets and save percentage but is also the most effective goalkeeper in the top flight at handling crosses, whatever the critiques of his positioning against Chelsea and Newcastle United recently.

But however you decide to run the numbers, there’s no argument that Alisson continues to be truly exceptional – but you only need to head a few miles down the Mersey to find a goalkeeper who’s been at least as good. The conversation will catch up with reality before too long.