Match Preview: Sheffield United vs Sunderland - Friday 29th November 2024

All attention turns to South Yorkshire on Friday night as a pivotal game takes place, under the lights, at the top of the Championship, which will have some fans crossing their fingers for a draw.

Pre-match analysis

Table toppers Sheffield United welcome The Black Cats to Bramall Lane who know that a win on the night will put them in pole position going into Saturday’s fixtures. The Blades however, are unbeaten in eight games and will be keen to extend this run and as they push for promotion back to the Premier League and potentially the title.

Friday’s hosts have proved a hard side to break down this season and have the second-best defensive record in the league, having only conceded nine goals in their seventeen games played. The Blades owe this to their defensive unit of Michael Cooper, Anel Ahmedhodzic (who will be unavailable for selection due to suspension) and Harry Souttar who have been near impossible to score against so far this season.

With a few changes here and there throughout the season, they have amounted 11 clean sheets in just 17 games.
Aiming to break down this defensive wall, are the leagues joint fourth highest goal scorers in Sunderland, who despite being two points off Chris Wilder’s side, are winless in five games. Despite their record being good on paper, the visitors come into this fixture struggling for goals, failing to score in three of their last five games.

Something tells me there is nothing their manager Régis Le Bris would like more than for his side to put that behind them and take all three points back to the North East.

Team news

Sheffield United will be without Anel Ahmedhodzic who will serve the second game of his three-match suspension which he picked up at Coventry after an altercation with Norman Bassette.

Ollie Arblaster will also not be available for selection as the midfielder has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a serious knee injury.

Keiffer Moore (calf) and Rhian Brewster (muscle) also are set to miss out due to injury, with the pair expected to return in the coming weeks

Sunderland, as expected, are without Jason Seelt (knee) and Niall Huggins (knee) who are both yet to make an appearance this season due to injury.

Ian Poveda also seems set to miss out on Friday night, despite a return being imminent from his muscle injury acquired at the beginning of October.

Salis Abdul Samed and Ahmed Abdullahi also are unavailable for selection due to the pair suffering leg injuries at the end of September.

Key Information

This game is bound to be one filled with class and has potential to be defining in this season’s Championship title race.
So, if you want to keep yourself busy and watch a game destined for drama at the top of the table, then make sure to keep an eye out for this fixture on Friday night.

Date: Friday 29th November 2024
Kick Off: 20:00pm
Location: Bramall Lane, Bramall Ln, Highfield, Sheffield, S2 4SU
For details on tickets go to sufc.co.uk

The game will be available to watch on Sky Sports Football, Sky Sports + and Sky Sports Ultra