A wall that means wins

FC Barcelona's German keeper has certainly been delivering the goods in the opening matches of the season. Ter Stegen has only conceded one goal in four games, just the third time this century that the team has survived 360 minutes of league football with just one or fewer goals against.

The only goal received was that scored by Isak of Real Sociedad, now of Newcastle, who found the net with a fortuitous rebound off Eric Garcia to send the ball looping over Ter Stegen's head to level the scores at 1-1. Barça would go on to win that game 4-1, having previously drawn 0-0 with Rayo Vallecano and then going on to score a total of seven goals to no reply against Valladolid (4-0) and Sevilla (3-0).

One of the best starts ever

On each of the last four times that Barça got off to a similarly impressive start defensively, in 1984/85, 1993/94, 2014/15 and 2017/18, Barça went on to win the league. That's a good sign!.

In 2014/15, Claudio Bravo amassed an extraordinary eight clean sheets before he was finally beaten in game nine. In 2017/18, Ter Stegen had the same record after four games as he does now.

Ter Stegen on fire

The German has started his ninth season at Barça with a series of tremendous saves, and a very impressive 92% success arte.

Last Saturday against Sevilla, he made several key stops early on in the game when the home side looked to be on top. Not until Raphinha found the net did the balance tip and from then on the Catalans went on to dominate in a 3-0 victory.