Sheffield United v Arsenal; big scores, team selections and a lack of capitals

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

5 Replies to “Sheffield United v Arsenal; big scores, team selections and a lack of capitals”

  1. Leno
    Saka, Mari, Holding, Chambers
    Xhaka, Partei
    Martinekli, Ceballos, Pepe
    Lacazette

    Subs

    Ryan, Bellerin, Gabriel, Soares, Elneny, Willian, Nelson, Nketiah, Miguel Azeez

  2. For once I wasn’t shouting at the television about our football tonight (well not much anyway)

    Hope Saka will be OK for Thursday.

  3. 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.

  4. WOO HOO , HOO ! An away win and a clean sheet to boot ! Well done guys .
    Up the Gunners !

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