Sheffield United Match Preview

After falling just short of completing their second double of the season away at newly-promoted Fulham nine days ago, West Ham United have the chance to make amends by seeing if they can take six points from Sheffield United when the Blades visit Stratford tonight.

The Hammers will also be keen to atone for their Emirates FA Cup exit to fellow Premier League side Manchester United last Tuesday.

After the Blades suffered a home defeat to Chelsea eight days ago, that result dropped David Moyes’ men down a place to sixth in the Premier League table and they could slip further, depending on the weekend’s other results. Having said that, the hosts will want to pile more misery on Chris Wilder’s men.

This is a fixture that West Ham will definitely see as winnable. Although Wilder’s side have shown recent good form, they still occupy bottom place in the table, having picked up only ten more points than when these two teams last met back on 22 November, when the Irons won 1-0 at Bramall Lane.

Moyes has had one extra day to prepare his team for this fixture, as the Blades progressed through to the quarter-final stage of the Emirates FA Cup by edging past Sky Bet Championship outfit Bristol City the following night.

Moyes will have to make a change in central defence, as Angelo Ogbonna will be out for a number of weeks after sustaining a serious ankle injury during the defeat to the Red Devils at Old Trafford. Issa Diop is likely to partner Craig Dawson in central defence.

Jesse Lingard is set to return after he was unable to feature against his parent club, as he had already played for them in their third round tie against Watford. This may mean that Pablo Fornals will again possibly be the player to make way.

Saïd Benrahma will also be hoping to be restored to the starting line-up in place of Mark Noble, with Declan Rice once again assuming responsibility for the captaincy.

Michail Antonio should be able to make a timely return to the squad, as it is thought that Andriy Yarmolenko will miss the game due to a knee injury.

The match is a 6pm kick-off with live coverage being screened by BT Sport from 5:30pm. The referee is Simon Hooper.