If you were to ask 100 football fans what their favourite thing about the beautiful game is, they would say goals; long range strikes, flowing team moves, moments of individual brilliance… all shapes and sizes are celebrated. Few would romanticise about a gutsy defending display that results in a clean sheet, and yet if you don’t concede a goal then you can’t lose a game of football – and there’s something quite romantic about that. For the minority that do revel in displays of dogged defensive resistance and clean sheets, Burnley head coach, Scott Parker, has been the poster boy to swoon over in 2024/25.
The Clarets had embarked on a 12-game run without conceding a goal, which has been enough to see them challenge for the promotion places in the Championship. That streak came to an end at the hands of Cardiff City in March; sadly, for Parker and his players, they fell just two clean sheets short of a near two-decade long record set by Manchester United in 2009. Still, at least Burnley have the chance to dust themselves down and start a new clean sheet streak… they clearly have a taste for defensive domination.
✍️ 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓: Burnley conceded a Championship goal for the first time in 13 games but kept the heat on Leeds and Sheffield United by winning 2-1 at Cardiff.#SkyBetChampionship https://t.co/tgTBAntl0w
— The Football League Paper (@TheLeaguePaper) March 5, 2025
Most Consecutive Clean Sheets in English Football
The record that Burnley so nearly claimed as their own was the incredible 2008/09 mark set by Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side compiled a run of 14 consecutive clean sheets in the Premier League, which is the most successive blanks in the professional ranks of English football.
The run is made all the more surprising by the fact that they conceded three goals to lowly Hull City just prior to the streak starting, which perhaps suggests that Ferguson put in extra hours on the training ground to get the organisation of his defensive players just right. They then embarked on their sensational 14-game run, which featured 12 wins and two draws, in a campaign in which they won the Premier League and the League Cup, as well as losing out to Barcelona in the final of the Champions League.
Such stout defending saw a host of other records broken, which includes the longest amount of time without conceding a goal. That milestone belongs to Edwin van der Sar, who was United’s goalkeeper for the vast majority of the streak – 1,311 minutes out of 1,344, to be precise.
The run was spoiled 32 minutes into a game against Blackburn Rovers on February 21, 2009. Tomasz Kuszczak, deputising for Van der Sar, had kept the Lancashire outfit at bay for half an hour before Roque Santa Cruz stepped up to end United’s long run without conceding. Van der Sar, watching on from the sidelines, was no doubt chuffed to bits that the record was broken without him even being on the pitch…
Most Clean Sheets in an English Football Season
Although Burnley cannot match Manchester United’s lengthy run without conceding, they are still very much on course for another clean sheet record. At the time of writing, the Clarets had kept 25 clean sheets in the Championship from 35 games. With eleven games of the campaign to go, they still have plenty of leeway to add more to their collection.
There’s scope to close in on the record for most clean sheets kept in an English football season (in the top four divisions). That milestone currently belongs to Port Vale, whose class of 1953/54 kept 30 clean sheets in a 46-game Third Division campaign.
The record for the most shutouts in a top-flight season – First Division or Premier League – belongs to Liverpool, whose 1978/79 vintage included the likes of Ray Clemence in goal and Alan Hansen, Phil Thompson, Alan Kennedy and Phil Neal in defence. Between them, the Reds backline kept 28 clean sheets in a record-breaking campaign.
Longest Time Without Conceding in the World Cup
As a point of order, it should be noted that Van der Sar’s mammoth 1,311 minutes of perfect goalkeeping – plus that extra 32 minutes from Kuszczak – has been bettered in European football. And so a hat tip should go to Dany Verlinden, the Belgian who took up residence between the sticks for Club Brugge. His record transcends two seasons – the end of 1989/90 and the start of 1990/91, in which he didn’t concede a goal for some 1,390 minutes of action.
In the World Cup, Walter Zenga’s record at the 1990 edition of the tournament will surely take some beating over the years. His Italy side kept three consecutive clean sheets in the group phase against the Czech Republic, Austria and the USA, before also shutting out Uruguay and the Republic of Ireland during the knockout stage.
That took the Italians to a semi-final against Argentina, where they were once again in stout mood. Eventually, Claudio Caniggia found a way to score past Zenga, whose run without conceding was halted at a remarkable 518 minutes – a World Cup record that may never be broken.
Who Has Kept the Most Premier League Clean Sheets?
As the goal count per game continues to rise in the Premier League, that means that the number of clean sheets kept is starting to wane. So it will come as no surprise to learn that the most prolific clean sheet keepers in EPL history are shot stoppers from yesteryear. And leading the way is former Chelsea and Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech, who racked up a commanding 202 clean sheets in his 443 Premier League outings.
Nobody else can get close to the Czech. The next best hauls belong to David James (169), Mark Schwarzer (151), David de Gea (147) and David Seaman (140). And Cech contributes to another Premier League milestone: the most clean sheets kept in a single season. The headgear-wearing Czech was responsible for 24 shutouts in his debut EPL season in 2004/05, winning the Golden Glove award and setting a record that will take some beating.
