Penalties have always been a favourite of mine.
Not those of the shoot-out variety but those that come in the normal course of play.
There`s nothing like seeing an appeal launched and then the referee pointing to the spot, even more so if it is for your team.
After the initial hullabaloo dies down a deathly silence falls upon the crowd as those wanting to see their team score offer a silent prayer whilst those wanting to see it saved hope their keeper can pull off a miracle.
Yesterday, whilst surfing the internet, I came across something that I found interesting and I hope will interest you.
It relates to those goalkeepers who have, percentage wise, saved the most penalties in their Premier League career.
To qualify, the rules stated that you must have 10 or more during your career.
Now, I have to admit that the keeper who came top of the pile surprised me, but I`ll save his name for later in the article.
Amongst the contenders were:
Manuel Alumina who faced 14 penalties and saved 6 giving the former Arsenal keeper a 42.9% success rate.
Another who fared well was Pavel Srnicek who faced 12 penalties saving 5 for a percentage saved rate of 41.7%.
But, at the top of the pile having saved 5 out of the 11 penalties for a save rate of 45.5% is the former Russian and Chelsea keeper Dmitri Kharine.
Well done Dmitri.
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