Sheffield United Match Preview

After seeing their FA Cup adventure ended, thanks to defeat by Bristol City for the first time since 1978, West Ham United make a return to Premier League action as they look for a sixth win on their travels when they make the trip to Bramall Lane to take on newly-promoted Sheffield United this afternoon.

If the Hammers were to pick up three points here, it will not only be another victory added to their total but it would mean that they have achieved their first double after beating Paul Heckingbottom’s side 2-0 back on 30 September.

With Heckingbottom having left the South Yorkshire club, Chris Wilder has returned to the dugout and he will be hoping to avoid another defeat to the Irons as David Moyes’ men did the double over his Blades team in the 2020/21 campaign.

This time last week, the Blades were enjoying their winter break, whereas West Ham had to deal with the prospect of playing in an FA Cup replay. This means that the hosts will have had a full fortnight to prepare ahead of this game. That is definitely not the case for the Irons however, who have only had a matter of five days.

Neither side will be full of confidence going into the encounter but the East Londoners are hopeful of building on their recent results against both Brighton and Hove Albion and Arsenal.

Jarrod Bowen, Edson Álvarez and Pablo Fornals missed the defeat to Liam Manning’s Robins on Tuesday night and will face late fitness tests to see if they can be involved here.

Saïd Benrahma may be suspended, owing to the straight red card he picked up at Ashton Gate. Angelo Ogbonna could regain his place ahead of Aaron Cresswell, while Alphonse Areola is set to come back into the starting line-up.

The match is a 2pm kick-off and live coverage is being screened by TNT Sports from 1pm. The referee is Michael Salisbury.