Perspective needed from Sheffield United's sobering end to 2023 - at least they are losing better

The Blades lost at Manchester City on Saturday but even in a league that bills itself as one where any team can beat any other, only the most fanciful of dreamers would have suggested anything else. At least they are losing better now.

The bookmakers rated the away side's chances of victory at 30-1 and if the worst came to the worst, Pep Guardiola had the insurance policy of Kevin de Bruyne on the bench for the first time since he was injured on the first weekend of the season. The Blades dodged that, but Huddersfield Town might not be so lucky in the FA Cup on Sunday.

But de Bruyne or no de Bruyne, City are a special side and made absolutely sure their opponents knew it, leaving five glistening trophies, all won in 2023, on plinths in the eyelines of the visiting players as they came out of the tunnel.

Arrogance like that needs to be backed up and City turned the 90 minutes of football into one giant "rondo" – or game of "piggy in the middle” as you and I know it.

It created some eye-watering statistics – 1,129 City touches, 1,000 passes with a 94 per cent success rate and 81 per cent possession according to number-crunchers who must have been almost as tired as Sheffield United's back five and central midfield three as they shuffled left and right trying to plug holes, with Anis Slimane, then Will Osula doing likewise further up.

It is where Sheffield United are. It might sound harsh but there is no hiding from the league table, they are the Premier League’s worst team, not only insufficiently reinforced after promotion last season but further undermined by injuries to key players like their captain John Egan, not to mention a suspension on Saturday for their next-best defender, Anel Ahmedhodzic. Their two most creative forces – Gustavo Hamer and James McAtee – were missing too, the former banned, the latter ineligible because they are borrowing him from City.

But another number reflected well on the Blades. For all that possession, City had only four shots on target. The visitors managed two from their four efforts.

It was a world away from the 8-0 capitulation to Newcastle United, the 5-0 defeat at Arsenal or most of all the 5-0 defeat to Burnley. It was those collapses, not just defeats per se, which made the Sheffield United board feel it had no choice but to sack Paul Heckingbottom, who put up with and did so much for them and their football club, and replaced him with Chris Wilder.

Conceding as early as the 14th minute, when Rodrigo burst onto a ball loosened up by Vinicius Souza's challenge on Phil Foden, drove forward and neatly netted, ought to have opened the floodgates to if not another Newcastle, then certainly an Arsenal or Burnley.

All that ball-chasing should have taken its toll late on, but Julian Alvarez's 61st-minute goal was the last.

You do not get points for honourable defeats, which is why even after a bit of Wilder bounce it is still hard to see the Blades escaping relegation.

Wilder's first six games back as manager have yielded four points. The same ratio in the last 18 games will only get them to 21, double it to 33. Derby County in 1978-79 were the last team to stay in the top division with fewer (31).

The January transfer window offers the opportunity for a season-twisting intervention but with seemingly the poorest prince in the Saudi royal family holding the purse strings, the war chest will largely be filled by offloading outcasts.

But if ever a day was more about realism than romanticism it was their sobering end to 2023. The over-riding target for the next five months must be to take some positivity and dignity into next season. If that keeps them in the Premier League, it deserves to be some party.

Winning and losing are the ultimate measure but firstly fans want a team they can take pride in, and the way the Blades fought on Saturday at least provided that.

The performance of 20-year-old Osula, preferred up front to substitutes Rhian Brewster (£24m), Oli McBurnie (£20m) and Cameron Archer (£18.5m), was a reminder money is not everything.

He apparently only touched the ball 22 times, compared to 136 for the peerless Rodri, but his first shot, in the 41st minute, struck Manuel Akanji's foot and went for a corner his header forced a saved from.

His running, and the team’s crosses from the right, were all City really had to worry about.

If you were being hyper-critical you might say he, or right-back Jayden Bogle once in each half, should have scored because Alvarez or Foden would have.

But if you were being hyper-critical, you were missing the point.

There is a gaping chasm between where Sheffield United and Manchester City are as football clubs and teams, and no quick way to bridge it.

Perspective is everything.

Manchester City: Ederson; Walker (Dias 67), Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol; Kovacic (Lewis 67), Rodri; Silva, Foden, Grealish (Bobb 51); Alvarez. Unused substitutes: Phillips, de Bruyne, Ortega, Gomez, Nunes, Hamilton.

Sheffield United: Foderingham; Bogle, Baldock, Robinson, Trusty, Thomas (Norrington-Davies 89); Norwood, Souza, Brooks (Osborn 80); Slimane (Brewster 67); Osula (Archer 67). Unused substitutes: Davies, McBurnie, Traore, Larouci, Seriki.

Referee: D Coote (Nottinghamshire).