By Bulldog Drummond
We have beaten Sheffield U more than they have beaten us, but not by as much as you might think. We have won 50 and they have won 40 with 27 draws.
Who Scored gives us a prediction of Sheffield United 1 Arsenal 2 and has our top three players from all their stats as Saka, Lacazette and Ceballos in that order.
When I last looked at their site two people have voted for Man of the Match. One voted for Leno and the other for Aubameyang. You can vote here if you like.
But in the last dozen games against them we have done quite well
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 23 Feb 1999 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | W | 2-1 | FA Cup |
| 13 Apr 2003 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | W | 1-0 | FA Cup |
| 19 Feb 2005 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | D | 1-1 | FA Cup |
| 01 Mar 2005 | Sheffield United v Arsenal | W | 0-0 | FA Cup |
| 23 Sep 2006 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 30 Dec 2006 | Sheffield United v Arsenal | L | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 31 Oct 2007 | Sheffield United v Arsenal | W | 0-3 | League Cup |
| 23 Sep 2008 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | W | 6-0 | League Cup |
| 21 Oct 2019 | Sheffield United v Arsenal | L | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 18 Jan 2020 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 28 Jun 2020 | Sheffield United v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | FA Cup |
| 04 Oct 2020 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
Two defeats, two draws and eight victories. However both those defeats did come in Premier League games – including our last away league match against them. We need to be careful.
And just to return to WhoScored, I pointed out for the last game that someone had jumped in with a prediction of a 15-0 victory. They are in there again – I am surprised whoScored haven’t noticed that people are not taking their site totally seriously. Ah well. Editors and monitors salaries are quite high I suppose. I don’t know how we afford them.
The Radio Times predicts a 1-0 win to Arsenal, but like the Standard refuses to predict a team.
Back with WhoScored they do have a line up
Leno
Chambers Holding Gabriel Soares
Elneny Xhaka
Pepe SmithRowe Saka
Aubameyang
The Guardian however offers us
Leno
Bellerin Holding Gabriel Soares
Partey Xhaka
SmithRowe Saka Pepe
Aubameyang
Sports Mole try
Leno;
Chambers, Holding, Gabriel, Cedric;
Elneny, Xhaka;
Pepe, Ceballos, Saka;
Aubameyang
Squwaka offer us a lot of blank screen for some reason so we gave a chance to TheSportsBank, a newcomer to these pages who suggest
Bernd Leno,
Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Gabriel, Cedric,
Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka,
Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Nicolas Pepe,
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
which has a certain familiarity about it.
But these are difficult and pesky times. As when for example the 4th Official gives us “Saka, aubameyang and pepe set to start | 4-2-3-1 Arsenal predicted lineup vs Sheffield United” and we dutifully click on it particularly wondering why Auba and Pepe have had their surnames relegated to lower case and we get “Sorry, we can’t find the content you’re looking for at this URL.” You might want to try in case it has come back to life.
Arsenal Station confirms that Arsenal have an injury blow – but since the player concerned hasn’t been selected in any of the above line ups I think we all knew that anyway.
And finally a little bit of history, since Untold is also the home of the Arsenal History Society
In the 1927/8 season Arsenal beat Sheffield United in the League 6-1 at Highbury in September, but then lost 6-4 in Sheffield the following January.
However on 12 April 1930 Arsenal went two better and beat Sheffield United 8-1. But even that wasn’t enough for Chapman’s Arsenal as we then beat them 9-2 on Christmas Eve 1932.
Although those heights of scoring have not been reached again we have still had some other fun such as
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 06 Nov 1965 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | W | 6-2 | League Division One |
| 29 Jan 1972 | Sheffield United v Arsenal | W | 0-5 | League Division One |
| 07 Jan 1978 | Sheffield United v Arsenal | W | 0-5 | FA Cup |
| 21 Sep 1991 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | W | 5-2 | League Division One |
| 23 Sep 2008 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | W | 6-0 | League Cup |
Some more of the same would be most welcome.
The proof that something is seriously wrong with football refereeing and reporting
- How even a serious science magazine has used fake data on football
- Someone is trying to fake football stats – and doing it rather well,
- Crowdless stadia stats reveal fallacy of PGMO claims
- Proving unconscious bias by referees
- How clubs manipulate referees through their tactics
- Referees are not 98% accurate but only 75% accurate
Leno
Saka, Mari, Holding, Chambers
Xhaka, Partei
Martinekli, Ceballos, Pepe
Lacazette
Subs
Ryan, Bellerin, Gabriel, Soares, Elneny, Willian, Nelson, Nketiah, Miguel Azeez
Much better first half. Hope for more in the second half
For once I wasn’t shouting at the television about our football tonight (well not much anyway)
Hope Saka will be OK for Thursday.
This was a good win. I don’t think it was because the opposition was poor and gave us loads more room than usual it was because we had so much more confidence to play through them and were so much more creative and also seemed to be the right team for the job.
What a contrast to last weekend when we played as if we were beaten before we stepped onto the pitch.
WOO HOO , HOO ! An away win and a clean sheet to boot ! Well done guys .
Up the Gunners !