If you take a look at Premier League champions throughout the years, they all have one thing in common - they all had a world-class goalkeeper.

‘Keepers are often overlooked and rarely get the praise they deserve. After all, Peter Shilton was the last shot-stopper to win the PFA Player of the Year award when he picked up the accolade for his performances during the 1977/78 season for Nottingham Forest.

As for the Ballon d’Or, there hasn’t been a winning goalkeeper since 1963 when Russian Lev Yashin picked up the award.

These are just two facts that prove that goalkeepers are unsung heroes.

But here at GMS, we like to pay tribute to those that try to prevent goals.

Therefore, we ran a poll for our viewers to vote on who was the best goalkeeper in the Premier League last season. We allowed you to vote for either David de Gea, Thibaut Courtois or Hugo Lloris and here are the vote results:

De Gea - 12,000 votes

Courtois - 3,400 votes

Lloris - 979 votes

So, by a landslide, we can officially crown De Gea as GMS’s Premier League goalkeeper of the season.

Stats suggest otherwise

But have you made the right choice?

Well, according to the stats, maybe not.

De Gea’s United could only finish sixth as they trailed Courtois’ Chelsea and Lloris’ Tottenham by 24 and 17 points respectively.

But De Gea also kept less clean sheets than both Lloris and Courtois, while he conceded more goals than them.

As for saves, the United ‘keeper made one more than Courtois throughout the campaign but five less than Lloris.

But the most interesting statistic is the ‘saves per goal’ category.

De Gea ranks lowest in this with 2.11 saves per each goal he conceded. Lloris once again comes out on top with a ratio of 2.78 saves per goal conceded.

So, according to statistics, the best goalkeeper in the Premier League was probably Lloris.

But forget the stats, you’ve had your say and you believe De Gea is GMS’s Goalkeeper of the Season.