Games against West Ham and Burnley will decide Sheffield United’s fate, not Chelsea and Arsenal

Listen to Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder and it could well be the period which will ultimately decide his side’s fate in 2020-21, a testing season in football for countless clubs on and off the pitch.

Wilder’s Blades side, comprehensively beaten 4-1 at Chelsea on Saturday evening, have taken just one point from their opening eight Premier League games and prop up the table.

It is the joint lowest points tally at this stage of a Premier League campaign ever, alongside Manchester City (1995-96), Southampton (1998-99), neighbours Sheffield Wednesday (1999-00) and Sunderland (2013-14).

Southampton and Sunderland both managed to survive following heroics at the end of their respective seasons, whereas City and the Owls both suffered relegation.

Wilder’s side have just faced Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool in successive games. Arsenal have also been on the itinerary in their past five matches.

By the end of 2020, they will have faced the likes of West Bromwich Albion, Brighton and Hove Albion, Burnley and West Ham United – and welcome Newcastle United in their first home game of 2021.

Wilder added: “You have to be realistic, the teams we have been up against will not decide our future.

“If we only win one of our next 10 games, that will possibly decide our future.

“Because you will be sat after 18 games halfway through the season with half a dozen points on the table, which won’t be enough to get you out of the situation you are in. It has been a really difficult run right the way through this season and over the last five games because of the opposition we are up against and the way we are playing.

“There’s no magic wand, we have to come through this and we will do.

“We all have periods like this, not just in football but in life when it really is difficult,” added Wilder.

The Blades boss admits he is grateful for the two-week international break to enable his players to ‘clear their heads’.

When they return to action at home to West Ham in 13 days’ time, they need to start sticking their chests out again, according to Wilder.

He added: “Even though we have some players going away in the international break, we can clear our heads and all the team spirit which everyone talks about when teams are going well will be tested to the full.

“They have to pick themselves up together and individually, they have to shake themselves a little bit. It’s been a really tough run.

“The group of players have done fabulous for me and the football club.

“I know there will be opinions out there and there will be quite a lot in Sheffield at the moment. But the group will stick together as we always do and fight our way through it.

“Everybody is that expert when it is not going well. You have to stick your chest out.

“There have been a lot of fabulous things said about us over quite a period of time and we have to dig in and get out of this period,” he said.

“It would not surprise me if we did and that’s the belief we will have together as a group of players and staff.”

Across the city, had Sheffield Wednesday lost to Millwall, both Steel City clubs would have been bottom of their respective divisions.

Report and analysis: Page 3

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