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I don't usually post these match reports, but I think you'll enjoy this one!
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Chris Wilder’s men punish Chelsea
Sheffield United 3 Chelsea 0
Jonathan Northcroft
Oliver McBurnie thought he had gone and had his fun and disappeared down a staircase towards the dressing rooms. But, just after doing so, David McGoldrick belted in Sheffield United’s third goal. McBurnie re-emerged and jigged down the main stand stairs making pistol gestures with his hands, still in the kit he had drenched in sweat for 63 minutes before being substituted. All grinning and giggling and gangly.
That represented this match: Chelsea’s cultured but soft-centred young team absolutely outgunned and outmanned by Sheffield United’s forceful, anarchic, entertaining side. What an addition to the Premier League they have been, and this was one of a great season’s greatest scalps.
The score didn’t lie. It reflected the gap in purposefulness and performance between the teams, evident particularly in the first half, 45 minutes that forced Frank Lampard to rip up his game plan, switch to 3-4-3, and remove his main creative hope Mason Mount at 2-0 down. The hosts “had more voice and personality in the way they played,” Lampard glowered.
Few have “more voice” than Chris Wilder, who continued screaming instructions right to the end of stoppage time. Beginning the season’s restart by falling out of the Champions League race and exiting the FA Cup would have deflated nearly any other group and manager, but not these ones: consecutive home wins v Tottenham Hotspur, Wolverhampton Wanderers and now Chelsea have propelled Sheffield United back into contention to qualify for Europe. The top four is still probably beyond them — but then again, only fools count any Wilder team out.
Where the defeat leaves Chelsea will only be clear after Leicester City meet Bournemouth and Manchester United play Southampton but claiming a Champions League spot could now be a dicey business. They have Norwich City next, but finish at Anfield then versus Wolves. They have conceded more goals than anyone in the top ten and lost almost one third of their games — despite playing such sparkling football, at points, inconsistency is their enemy.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is the symbol of that and was questionable for all three goals, especially the third which arose after 77 minutes when the Spaniard failed to hold a shot from McBurnie’s replacement, Lys Mousset. McGoldrick, for the second time in the game, knocked home a rebound. McGoldrick’s goals were his first in the Premier League after 26 games, 11 months and 42 previous shots.
McBurnie was magnificent: rangy, awkward, aggressive, tireless — a one-man hounding machine. With McGoldrick he formed a starting strike partnership sent out by Wilder that Chelsea couldn’t handle and the first goal was coming well before it arrived, for McGoldrick, after 17 minutes when the 32-year-old smacked in the loose ball after a McBurnie effort cannoned off two defenders on its way through to Arrizabalaga, who could only parry.
McBurnie himself scored the second, following a move showcasing the best elements of Wilder’s attacking play: an overlap, some physicality, a speedy flooding forward of bodies. Enda Stevens went outside Ben Osborn who fed him down the line with a well-judged pass. Stevens’s near cross was excellent. McBurnie’s header was even better, into the bottom corner.
Arrizabalaga did not move. Then again, nor did his defenders. The sloth of his players, Ross Barkley apart, dismayed and baffled Lampard. Chelsea looked ambushed, as if this was right at the beginning of the season and the Premier League did not know how dangerous Sheffield United would be.
There was no excuse for not being ready for them yesterday — especially when, at Stamford Bridge, in August, Wilder’s men showed how dangerous they can be by coming back from two down to draw. Here was more classic Sheffield United stuff. They let Chelsea have the ball but that was a trick. With targeted, sudden pressing, they would take it back, get it forward quickly and overload a vulnerable area, with the right side of Lampard’s defence, featuring Reece James and Andreas Christensen, their favoured place to probe.
It took 42 minutes to give Mason Mount the ball in a decent position and Mount demonstrated what he can do by playing a clever cross-field pass to James, who a hammered a powerful drive at goal from 20 yards, forcing a sharp Dean Henderson save. Mount was casualty of Lampard’s half-time reshuffle as was the careless Christensen. The changes — particularly Antonio Rüdiger’s arrival — improved Chelsea but too late and by too little.
Christian Pulisic was under-supplied and departed too. His replacement, Olivier Giroud, sliced a volley wide moments after coming on. Tammy Abraham was wasteful too and after McGoldrick’s second strike extinguished their remaining comeback prospects, Mousset might have humiliated Chelsea by making it 4-0 but placed his dink over Arrizabalaga just wide of the posts.
But what a side Sheffield United can be. The shift their strikers put in was matched by their centre backs, and you watched Wilder’s men pack their defensive third, closing the spaces and throwing bodies in the way of balls yet at the right times emerge to suddenly apply pressure. A team who could block like Burnley, press like Southampton and create their own brand of dangers in attack: quite a mix.
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Chris Wilder’s men punish Chelsea
Sheffield United 3 Chelsea 0
Jonathan Northcroft
Oliver McBurnie thought he had gone and had his fun and disappeared down a staircase towards the dressing rooms. But, just after doing so, David McGoldrick belted in Sheffield United’s third goal. McBurnie re-emerged and jigged down the main stand stairs making pistol gestures with his hands, still in the kit he had drenched in sweat for 63 minutes before being substituted. All grinning and giggling and gangly.
That represented this match: Chelsea’s cultured but soft-centred young team absolutely outgunned and outmanned by Sheffield United’s forceful, anarchic, entertaining side. What an addition to the Premier League they have been, and this was one of a great season’s greatest scalps.
The score didn’t lie. It reflected the gap in purposefulness and performance between the teams, evident particularly in the first half, 45 minutes that forced Frank Lampard to rip up his game plan, switch to 3-4-3, and remove his main creative hope Mason Mount at 2-0 down. The hosts “had more voice and personality in the way they played,” Lampard glowered.
Few have “more voice” than Chris Wilder, who continued screaming instructions right to the end of stoppage time. Beginning the season’s restart by falling out of the Champions League race and exiting the FA Cup would have deflated nearly any other group and manager, but not these ones: consecutive home wins v Tottenham Hotspur, Wolverhampton Wanderers and now Chelsea have propelled Sheffield United back into contention to qualify for Europe. The top four is still probably beyond them — but then again, only fools count any Wilder team out.
Where the defeat leaves Chelsea will only be clear after Leicester City meet Bournemouth and Manchester United play Southampton but claiming a Champions League spot could now be a dicey business. They have Norwich City next, but finish at Anfield then versus Wolves. They have conceded more goals than anyone in the top ten and lost almost one third of their games — despite playing such sparkling football, at points, inconsistency is their enemy.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is the symbol of that and was questionable for all three goals, especially the third which arose after 77 minutes when the Spaniard failed to hold a shot from McBurnie’s replacement, Lys Mousset. McGoldrick, for the second time in the game, knocked home a rebound. McGoldrick’s goals were his first in the Premier League after 26 games, 11 months and 42 previous shots.
McBurnie was magnificent: rangy, awkward, aggressive, tireless — a one-man hounding machine. With McGoldrick he formed a starting strike partnership sent out by Wilder that Chelsea couldn’t handle and the first goal was coming well before it arrived, for McGoldrick, after 17 minutes when the 32-year-old smacked in the loose ball after a McBurnie effort cannoned off two defenders on its way through to Arrizabalaga, who could only parry.
McBurnie himself scored the second, following a move showcasing the best elements of Wilder’s attacking play: an overlap, some physicality, a speedy flooding forward of bodies. Enda Stevens went outside Ben Osborn who fed him down the line with a well-judged pass. Stevens’s near cross was excellent. McBurnie’s header was even better, into the bottom corner.
Arrizabalaga did not move. Then again, nor did his defenders. The sloth of his players, Ross Barkley apart, dismayed and baffled Lampard. Chelsea looked ambushed, as if this was right at the beginning of the season and the Premier League did not know how dangerous Sheffield United would be.
There was no excuse for not being ready for them yesterday — especially when, at Stamford Bridge, in August, Wilder’s men showed how dangerous they can be by coming back from two down to draw. Here was more classic Sheffield United stuff. They let Chelsea have the ball but that was a trick. With targeted, sudden pressing, they would take it back, get it forward quickly and overload a vulnerable area, with the right side of Lampard’s defence, featuring Reece James and Andreas Christensen, their favoured place to probe.
It took 42 minutes to give Mason Mount the ball in a decent position and Mount demonstrated what he can do by playing a clever cross-field pass to James, who a hammered a powerful drive at goal from 20 yards, forcing a sharp Dean Henderson save. Mount was casualty of Lampard’s half-time reshuffle as was the careless Christensen. The changes — particularly Antonio Rüdiger’s arrival — improved Chelsea but too late and by too little.
Christian Pulisic was under-supplied and departed too. His replacement, Olivier Giroud, sliced a volley wide moments after coming on. Tammy Abraham was wasteful too and after McGoldrick’s second strike extinguished their remaining comeback prospects, Mousset might have humiliated Chelsea by making it 4-0 but placed his dink over Arrizabalaga just wide of the posts.
But what a side Sheffield United can be. The shift their strikers put in was matched by their centre backs, and you watched Wilder’s men pack their defensive third, closing the spaces and throwing bodies in the way of balls yet at the right times emerge to suddenly apply pressure. A team who could block like Burnley, press like Southampton and create their own brand of dangers in attack: quite a mix.
