De Gea's 500 games in numbers

The Spaniard, who made his United debut back in 2011, in the Community Shield against rivals Manchester City, becomes only the 11th player in our long history to reach the landmark.

As we celebrate David and his brilliant achievement, let’s take a look at the numbers behind those 500 games, starting with his clean sheets…

HOW MANY CLEAN SHEETS?

Sunday's goalless draw with Newcastle United was De Gea's 170th clean sheet in 500 United games, putting him 10 behind Peter Schmeichel's club record. Alex Stepney is currently sandwiched between Peter and David, on 175.

GAMES BY COMPETITION

As you might expect, the vast majority of De Gea’s 500 appearances have arrived in the Premier League, with the Newcastle game marking his 386th top-flight outing. Only six overseas players have turned out more often since the league was rebranded in 1992: five goalkeepers, in Tim Howard, Jussi Jaaskelainen, Petr Cech, Brad Friedel and Mark Schwarzer, plus French centre-back Sylvain Distin.

Premier League – 386 games
Champions League – 54
FA Cup – 22
Europa League – 20
League Cup – 14
Community Shield – 3
UEFA Super Cup – 1

MOST COMMON OPPONENTS

David made his United bow against City, and they are his joint most-played opponents, alongside Chelsea, who will once again top the list next Saturday as we travel to Stamford Bridge to take on Graham Potter’s Blues in the Premier League.

Chelsea and Man City – 26
Liverpool – 25
Everton – 24
Arsenal – 23

MOST VISITED STADIA

Of David’s 500 games, 248 have taken place at Old Trafford with the remaining 252 split between 83 different venues…

Old Trafford – 248
Stamford Bridge – 13
Etihad Stadium, Anfield, Goodison Park – 12
Wembley – 11
Emirates Stadium – 10

TOP TEAM-MATES

Over the last 11 years, David has shared a pitch with 104 different United players, from Anderson to Wilfried Zaha. Seven Reds have played more than 200 games with David, including current team-mates Marcus Rashford (top of the list, on 255) and Anthony Martial (220). The others are Chris Smalling (243), Antonio Valencia (233), Juan Mata (225), Ashley Young (223) and Wayne Rooney (201).

SECOND TO STEPNEY

De Gea is the second-quickest Red to reach the mark of 500 games, after Stepney, the only other goalkeeper to achieve the feat. Stepney – a virtual ever-present between 1966 and 1978 – took just 3,859 days, while Sunday is 4,088 days on from De Gea’s initial United outing. Next in that list is Rooney, the last player to reach 500. He took 11 days longer than former team-mate David.

Here's the updated United all-time appearance list...

Ryan Giggs – 963 appearances
Sir Bobby Charlton – 758
Paul Scholes – 718
Bill Foulkes – 688
Gary Neville – 602
Wayne Rooney – 559
Alex Stepney – 539
Tony Dunne – 535
Denis Irwin – 529
Joe Spence – 510
David De Gea – 500*