The votes for our final individual award of 2021 have been collected, and we can announce that David De Gea is Manchester United's Player of the Month for December.
The Spaniard has retained the crown he seized in November, after seeing off Cristiano Ronaldo and Fred in our fan poll.
Our no.1 kept two clean sheets during December and won a pair of Man of the Match accolades across the month, but had a fight on his hands given his two opponents.
Ronaldo found the net four times in his five appearances, while Fred’s input was critical to the wins against Villarreal, Arsenal and Crystal Palace.
But David emerged as the clear winner, after a month in which he produced a series of stunning saves.
He claimed an overwhelming 73 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Portuguese (22 per cent) and the Brazilian (five per cent).
Interestingly, last month’s prize was the first Player of the Month garland our no.1 had won since February 2018, but these back-to-back triumphs surely confirm De Gea is back to his imperious best.
Perhaps his finest performance came at St James’ Park, where he produced miraculous saves to deny Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron, to help the below-par Reds avoid a damaging defeat.
He was also exemplary in the narrow 1-0 win over Norwich at Carrow Road, and kept another clean sheet in Ralf Rangnick’s first game in charge against Crystal Palace.
After the Newcastle game, the interim manager declared himself delighted with what he’d seen from his goalkeeper in their few weeks working together.
“Again there were two or three fantastic saves from David De Gea, similar to the game at Norwich,”marvelled Rangnick.
“For sure, David is one of the best goalkeepers in the world – he showed that at Norwich and in the game today.”
Congratulations for this award, David, and long may your superb form continue!
PLAYER OF THE MONTH WINNERS 2021/22
August: Mason Greenwood
September: Cristiano Ronaldo
October: Cristiano Ronaldo
November: David De Gea
December: David De Gea