Sheffield United give their all, but fail in the crucial moments against Chelsea

Sheffield United probably pushed Chelsea as hard as any team has in German coach Thomas Tuchel’s four matches in the Premier League but once again, they lacked the crucial elements to turn a performance into points.

Oli Burke missed the target from a good chance in the first minute, and Kean Bryan’s poor backpass allowed Chelsea to claim a 2-1 win from a game they had calamitously let the Blades back into, as Jorginho converted a dragged-out penalty. The hosts’ luck was out too, denied a spot kick of their own by a fine-margin VAR call.

They pushed right to the end but there is a reason the Blades, who missed the chance to move off the bottom of the table for the first time since it meant anything by taking a point, remain 12 adrift of safety with matches running out. In the crucial moments that decide top-level football games, they are just not quite good enough.

The match was less than a minute old when Burke had his chance, Oli McBurnie playing him through on goal. The centre-forward ought to have hit the target, but instead rippled the side netting from the outside.

Eventually his team would be made to pay.

They were much the better side early on, playing with the verve they had shown defeating West Bromwich Albion in midweek. Centre-back Chris Basham was prominent again, Jayden Bogle lively too. Oliver Norwood snapped hungrily into tackles and whenever Burke had space to run into, Chelsea’s back three looked uneasy.

Even when they went behind the second time there was no air of resignation, no giving up the fight which is starting to look very bleak indeed with the teams above the relegation continuing to pick up points here and there.

The Blades nearly had a penalty in the 11th minute, Bryan playing the ball in for Basham, who was fouled by Ben Chilwell. Kevin Friend took his time making the decision but with Norwood ready to take the penalty, video assistant referee Simon Hooper over-ruled him, or rather his linesman, correctly spotting Basham fractionally offside when the ball came in.

Midway through the half right wing-back Bogle dribbled over to the left-hand side of the area, only to run out of space and have to lay it back. The move petered out.

Blades manager Chris Wilder had joked beforehand he would order snow and cold for the game and although the white stuff did not arrive, there was an extra helping of chill to compensate.

Chelsea offered little in the first half-hour and when they did, Basham cleared a goalbound effort from Timo Werner, and Bryan put a good penalty-area tackle in on Mason Mount.

In the final 15 minutes of the half, though the Blues finally found their feet. It amounted to little, many of their shots followed by painfully slow offside flags, as Burke’s earlier curling effort had been.

Antonio Rudiger shot wide, and had John Fleck block another effort.

Seeing what was coming, Wilder frantically screamed at his defenders to push out.

With half-time approaching, the damn finally burst, Werner running in behind Basham and pulling the ball back for a smart Mount finish.

Ten minutes into the second half, the Blades had a stroke of luck.

Rudiger cut out McBurnie’s pass to Burke and thought he was playing it back to Edouard Mendy, only to look up and see the goalkeeper off his line and the ball heading into an empty net.

It was the first goal Chelsea have conceded under Tuchel.

It took all of three minutes for Chelsea to equalise, but it could have been a fraction of it.

Friend turned a blind eye to Ramsdale clattering into Werner as he was played into trouble by Bryan’s poor backpass – the goalkeeper taking a knee to the head which would later require treatment for his troubles. The play was allowed to go on for some time, transferring to the opposite end of the field, before the referee consulted his monitor and decide he ought to have whistled after all. With his tradernark hop,m skip and jump, Jorginho sent Ramsdale the wrong way.

Friend seemed concerned when Ramsdale had lengthy treatment minutes later but on this first weekend of Premier League concussion substitutes, it was one unwanted bit of history the Blades were not going to make.

The hosts refused to give up, Fleck shooting at Mendy, Rudiger making an important header to keep Norwood’s free-kick out of the net. David McGoldrick’s snap-shot was saved after more good work by Bogle.

Wilder poured the centre-forwards on, calling three from what was only a six-man bench, and Tuchel needed the insurance of Ngolo Kante, who replaced Werner.

Fleck dribbled close enough to see the whites of Mendy’s eyes with 15 minutes remaining but with the angle tightening, his shot was blocked. John Lundstram put one wide and from the final shot of the game, Billy Sharp forced a save with an overhead bicycle kick.

The Blades never gave up, but it was not to be. It could well end up being the story of their season.

Sheffield United: Ramsdale; Basham, Egan, Bryan (Sharp 68); Bogle, Lundstram, Norwood (Brewster 86), Fleck, Lowe; Burke, (McGoldrick 62), McBurnie.

Unused substitutes: Jagielka, Foderingham, Osborn.

Chelsea: Mendy; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger; James, Jorginho, Kovacic, Chilwell (Alonso 62); Mount; Giroud (Hudson-Odoi 62), Werner (Kante 75).

Unused substitutes: Arrizabalaga, Abraham, Zouma, Ziyech, Gilmour, Emerson.

Referee: K Friend (Leicestershire).

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