Official: David de Gea wins an award no keeper has won in the Premier Leavue si

 David de Gea has been named 

the Premier League's Player of the Month

, becoming the first goalkeeper to win 

the award in six years.

The 31-year-old made 22 saves 

across four games for Manchester United

 in January, helping them move up 

into the top four of the Premier League.

Southampton's Fraser Forster was 

the last keeper to win the prize back

 in February 2016.

It marks the first time that De 

Gea has been awarded the Premier 

League's Player of the Month in his 

11-year spell at Manchester United.

De Gea topped a six-man January 

shortlist that featured Jarrod Bowen, 

Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Harrison,

 Joao Moutinho and James Ward-Prowse.

Though he kept just one clean sheet

 in January, much like the rest of the 

season, De Gea produced a number 

of stellar performances in January.

The month started with a 1-0 defeat

 against Wolves in a game which De 

Gea made a string of crucial saves to 

keep the Red Devils in the game 

before Moutinho's 82nd minute winner.

De Gea again made a number of 

excellent saves despite Aston Villa 

coming from two goals down to get a 

point against the Red Devils.

The Spaniard was kept busy in the

 first-half against Brentford who could 

have been two or three goals up 

at the break, before United put the 

Premier League new boys to the 

sword with three goals in the second-half.

He then kept a clean sheet as United

 took a valuable 1-0 victory over 

West Ham to get a valuable three points

 in the battle for the Champions

 League spots.

In what has been a tough season 

for the Red Devils, De Gea has been

 arguably the club's most reliable 

performer and United would arguably 

be in a worse off position if it wasn't

 for the Spaniard.

Overall, De Gea has the most saves

 in the Premier League this season. 

His total of 84 is 13 more than his 

nearest challenger Illan Meslier