Analysis: Why Sheffield United might be playing Spurs at the perfect time

It has been a magical start to Premier League life for Sheffield United, and next up is a trip to the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

Spurs have been a revelation under Mauricio Pochettino over the last few years, even reaching the Champions League final in May.

Things don’t look quite so positive this season. Amazingly, Tottenham’s 4-0 victory in Belgrade on Wednesday night was their first away win in 183 days.

Something is lacking, and has been for some time.

Jack Pitt-Brooke and Charlie Eccleshare cover Spurs for The Athletic, and in an article published last month they explained that Spurs are struggling to re-discover the intensive pressing style that has worked so successfully in the past.

As an example, they said that in the poor defeat to Brighton in October the opposition players felt they had outworked Tottenham.

The Brighton result was symptomatic of a deeper slump. The same article added that Pochettino recently said his main aim was for Spurs to ‘recover this aggressivity’ without the ball.

For a team supposedly trying to re-find their intensity and aggression, a match-up with Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United is the worst possible assignment. Each individual Blades player knows their job to a tee, and their running stats are up there with the best.

United are well-capable of out-working Tottenham if the home side don’t turn up on top form.

The comprehensive win over Burnley also confirmed to the wider public what Sheffield United fans already knew. Far from the basic football that Garth Crooks claims the Blades play, Sheffield United are capable of cutting teams to shreds with the ball on the deck.

The Blade have shown they are capable of scoring, and if Pochettino’s side fall behind, they may find the Blades a tough nut to crack. With 16 goals conceded, Spurs have shipped twice as many Premier League goals as Sheffield United this season.

Spurs’ comfy win over Red Star Belgrade was perhaps a sign that Pochettino is turning things around, and positive performances from summer signings Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele will have pleased the manager greatly.

Even the best sides tend to struggle after a long European trip, but United will have to be wary of the supremely talented players that Spurs have at their disposal on Saturday. This is of course an away match against the side that reached the Champions League final last year – tasks don’t get much trickier.

Every week the Sheffield United story seems to get sweeter – considering the form of both teams, it appears an opportune moment to claim the biggest scalp of the lot.