Despite the obvious struggles in the early stages of the season, Sheffield United have remained competitive in games against Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, and Manchester United. Ultimately though, the decisive goal in each match occurred late in all three games, with the Blades losing 2-1 in all of them.
Scott McTominay provided the visitors with a lead by directing a low and improvised shot into the bottom right corner of the net. Then Oli McBurnie canceled out his fellow countryman’s goal with a penalty. However the visitors secured a narrow victory over Sheffield United thanks to a spectacular second-half goal by Diogo Dalot.
Following his team’s most recent home defeat to Man United, manager Paul Heckingbottom expressed his belief that the Blades have the necessary qualities to reverse these narrow deficits in the future.
“Of course I’m confident the points will roll in, we’ve been too close too often,” he remarked. “We know there’s going to be games where we’re not in a position to capitalise, that’s the nature of the league that we are in.
“We have to make sure that we can as often as possible deliver those performances so that when we get those opportunities we pounce and take the points.” [SUTV]
Although Sheffield United’s 8-0 home defeat to Newcastle United is a game they’d rather forget, last season’s Championship runners-up have been on the verge of causing a few upsets in their Premier League campaign.
Sheffield United’s striker Oli McBurnie had a good performance against Manchester United before he was forced off early in the second half with a groin injury.
McBurnie ended a Premier League goal drought that extended back to December 2020 when he scored against Leicester City. He also scored his first-ever penalty in the top-flight.
Frustratingly, the forward reflected on yet another tough game and result for the Blades:
“That is probably the story of our season. We have been in a lot of games. It is tough to take but I thought the boys showed a lot of quality today. It’s unfortunate I think the boys have defended really well for a lot of the game and the right-back [Diogo Dalot] sticks one in the bin from 25-yards. There are definitely things to build on.” [BBC]
He mentioned about his injury:
“We will see how it is on Monday, I will have a scan and see what the diagnosis is.”
Sheffield United finds themselves in a challenging position, being only the fourth side in Premier League history to secure just one point in the opening nine games of a season (D1 L8). The previous three teams to suffer this were Manchester City in 1995/96, Sheffield Wednesday in 1999/00, and Sheffield United in 2020/21, all of which were eventually relegated.
Sheffield United are up against difficult opposition next Saturday as they travel to the Emirates to face Arsenal, a positive result out of this one would also be deemed as a huge upset. After that, they have a decent opportunity to claim points at Bramall Lane when they welcome Wolves.
