The Sky Bet Championship campaign continues on Sunday afternoon when the one match takes place up in Yorkshire as Bristol City make the ridiculously long trip for a lunchtime clash with Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.
Sheffield United have pulled the plug on one change of direction for this season and begin a new era, or perhaps a resumption of a previous one, while Bristol City plod along in the hope they currently have the right man in place.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full behind the red button on the Sky Football channel. The coverage begins five minutes before the 12.30pm kick off.
Sheffield United
Winning their last match made no difference to the job security of Slavisa Jokanovic and he was dismissed of his duties towards the end of last week with Paul Heckingbottom taking over once again. You’d have to say he didn’t get much of a tune out of this club when he took charge following the dismissal of Chris Wilder last season so although he has been working at the age levels at Bramall Lane, it doesn’t strike you as a perfect appointment for a side presumably targeting a straight return to the Premier League.
The big problem for Sheffield United has been in front of their own fans this season. They have only picked up 11 points from their nine home matches and this is a team who should be doing much better than that. While they lack a potent goalscorer even at this level, there should be enough in their squad to take the game to the opposition on home soil and be a threat. They go into this match with back to back clean sheets but also with just three goals in their last five matches which is symptomatic of where they are.
Bristol City
I think when Nigel Pearson was appointed as manager of Bristol City everyone would have expected a massive improvement and for them to be challenging up near the playoffs given his record with his previous clubs in the division. That hasn’t really happened though. He probably deserves some slack because he took over in the midst of the behind closed doors stuff and then had to change when the fans were back and while all that has been going on he’s missed matches due to Covid but you sense the Robins haven’t really got any sort of rebuild off the ground yet.
After losing just two of their opening nine matches Bristol City have now lost six of their last 10 but they’ve had a positive week so far with a good draw against Blackburn and a win over Stoke City. To be fair to them, of those six defeats four were against sides in the top 10 and another was against Nottingham Forest who will finish the season in those places. Keeping goals out of the net has been their problem on the road recently. They have leaked three in their last three away trips so if they can plug that gap it will help.
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Team News
Sheffield United are likely to be without John Fleck for this match after he collapsed during the win at Reading in midweek. He is now out of hospital but the Blades are likely to be cautious with the midfielder for the foreseeable future.
Joe Williams is expected to miss the trip to Yorkshire for Bristol City but the Robins will have Nathan Baker available despite him coming off 15 minutes early in the win over Stoke. He has recovered from whatever the issue was in that game.
Betting
There might be some sort of new manager bounce but Sheffield United look very short to me for a side who struggle for goals. Admittedly Bristol City are anything but watertight but with Nigel Pearson now back from Covid and them getting a more settled side I’m expecting the Robins to improve in the coming weeks. It has been a bit of a turbulent week for the Blades and they won’t have had long on the training ground for new ideas to be got across so it might be that we don’t see the best of them for a week or two.
Sheffield United haven’t been good in front of their own fans for ages now and although a lot of it stems from their inability to regularly find the back of the net, I guess expectation isn’t helping them much. There isn’t much of that on Bristol City here. After four points from the week already this is probably a bonus match for them but they must be thinking if they can get a goal here they will get a result of some kind. Peterborough are the only team the Blades have beaten by more than a goal at Bramall Lane this season and I suspect this will be more about winning than a margin of victory for the home side. That means there is good value on the visitors with the goal start the Asian lines reward them with.
Tips
Back Bristol City (+1AH) to beat Sheffield United for a 3/10 stake at 2.09 with BetVictor
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