Alan Biggs: It's not just quality that principled Sheffield United should be praised for

By that, I don’t just mean their attacking mindset, the overlapping centre backs and all those exciting attributes people don’t expect from a newly-promoted side.

Those aren’t the only reasons Chris Wilder’s side is regularly and rightly described by pundits as a “breath of fresh air.”

And let’s be honest, apart from a few crass pre-season comments, most, if not all, ex-players paid to comment on the game have lauded the Blades.

There’s maybe also a subconscious reason for their admiration, or at least one that is rarely discussed. Because it makes for an uncomfortable conversation.

It’s about the extent to which we accept, shall we say, playing the margins at the top level of the game and how this tolerance has been stretched by common practice.

The top players, many of them foreign but not exclusively so in this respect, are artful. This means being creative with the laws. What was commonly called simulation (cheating, diving) is gradually - and dangerously - being accepted as;-

Feeling contact and being entitled to go down.

Anticipating contact to the same end.

Or manufacturing contact.

As for the most sickening spectacle - feigning injury and trying to get an opponent sent off - the battle is in danger of being lost by a half-hearted FA.

So it’s no wonder if Wilder has occasionally got to thinking “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

Those who think it’s only the top clubs should have seen Bournemouth’s ugly exhibition at Bramall Lane this season.

Or Jack Grealish’s shameful dying swan routine in Aston Villa’s win over Crystal Palace last Sunday.

But it’s Arsenal who come most recently to mind after their narrow FA Cup quarter final victory at Bramall Lane.

Wilder said of the Arsenal penalty in that game (Chris Basham’s slight, albeit definite, contact on Andre Lacazette): “You don’t need to give an invitation out for any of those boys to go over ... maybe it’s just natural for those players but it isn’t natural for me and my players.”

Long may that continue, says this column. Beat them by NOT joining them. It’s extra remarkable that United are succeeding in doing just that.

However romantic and unrealistic a notion this may be, you can’t put a value on reputation and being morally right.

Wilder hates, even refuses, praise for losing. It’s what makes him the driven manager he is.

But he should accept it unreservedly, win or lose, when it comes to his principles being good for the game.

Because if we lose these values then we lose something far bigger - the game of football Itself.

And hopefully the Blades can become even more fashionable - as role models for the way it should be played.