Comment: Sheffield United risk pushing themselves into a position to sack Paul Heckingbottom when they do not want to - but what would be the point of that?

With a 5-0 mauling at Arsenal doing nothing to quell rumours given legs 24 hours earlier, the midfielder was asked if Sheffield United’s players wanted Paul Heckingbottom to remain as manager.

“100 per cent we do,” he replied.

They could do with being more unequivocal about it on the pitch.

“They outfought us,” were words that ought to have stung every visiting player. When you cannot come close to opponents for ability, you cannot allow that, yet Heckingbottom saw it with his own eyes.

“It's not acceptable to keep losing the way we are,” agreed Norwood.

Few in the dressing room, boardroom or on the terraces will take any satisfaction from Heckingbottom being shown the door but if they are not strong enough on and off the field, events risk running away from them as they did in north London.

Saturday's defeat was a new record for the worst first 10 games of a Premier League season, a milestone they previously set the last time they were relegated. They are now the division’s only winless club.

As Norwood said, it is not just that they are losing, it is how. There have been honourable defeats but there has also been an 8-0 home loss to Newcastle United and this 5-0.

Some opponents have been extremely tough but Crystal Palace at home and Nottingham Forest away were lost too. The only point came against Everton but of all the early-season games, at home to the crisis club was the best chance for three.

November's home matches with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bournemouth are massive opportunities they go into in a bad way.

The argument for change is simple: this cannot be allowed to continue. “If you keep doing the same thing, you will get the same result,” is a favourite Heckingbottomsim.

The counter-argument is more defeatist or realistic, depending on your view.

In a start to the season as bad as this, no one is blameless, but it does feel as though the manager has been handed an impossible job.

Which managers in world football could rescue a squad so patently out of its depth and of them, who would risk their reputation trying?

A return for Chris Wilder has been mooted. No one at Bramall Lane needs telling what a fine manager he is but two years ago even he was unable to turn a fractionally less disastrous start before his relationship with those still running the club became unworkable.

The change of voice and shot in the arm could give his beloved club a few extra per cent but enough to bridge the cap?

So if you share the view no one else could keep this squad up without serious backing in the January transfer window which is just not going to come under the current ownership – and it seems even less likely there will be a new name over the door by then – and if you believe Heckingbottom is doing the best he can in terrible circumstances, what would sacking a manager you do not want to achieve?

A message of defiance would be soon-forgotten grandstanding if they go down anyway. And Heckingbottom has already shown he can get the Blades promoted from the Championship on a shoestring.

The biggest thing he should have in his favour is a guilty conscience from the man making the decision.

Heckingbottom could walk into a job in the diplomatic core having bitten his tongue so often in circumstances “difficult” do not do justice to.

Owner Prince Abdullah will do well to find a replacement as loyal and obedient, not just this season but in the Championship transfer windows when the quality of his squad was quietly chipped away – especially January's when the promotion contenders were placed under an embargo.

The Blades did Heckingbottom a big favour keeping Sander Berge and Iliman Ndiaye then but undid it by selling them in the crucial last few days before this season kicked off. However much they felt their hand was forced, it all but sacrificed those crucial points-gathering opportunities against Palace and Forest.

Their injury situation is, says PremierInjuries.com, the worst in the division. Perhaps some aspect of Heckingbottom's management might be blamed if the independent investigation he has long been pushing for happens but right now it feels more like ill fate their transfer policy has been tempting.

Absentees are far more telling at a club whose outer squad places were packed with cheap filler in the summer, the opportunities for taking it easy on bodies being pushed a touch too hard fewer. Squad players are too often being asked to do jobs tough for key figures.

Norwood's words might help Heckingbottom's case a smidgeon as the Blades try to fight off a decision they would really rather not make but actions on the field – and a result or two, quickly – would do so much more.