Chris Wilder looking to strike Sheffield United balance at Bournemouth after "unacceptable" Arsenal defeat

Chris Wilder has attempted to strike the right balance of harsh words and arms around the shoulders of his Sheffield United players this week as the Blades look to bounce back from their latest tough experience of Premier League football this season. Monday night's 6-0 hammering at home to Arsenal was the fourth home game in a row in which they shipped five or more goals - a first in English football history.

United travel to Bournemouth this weekend in their last game before a three-week international break extended by the postponement of their trip to Manchester United, giving fans, staff and players alike a much-needed break from a bruising campaign so far. Wilder admitted for the first time after the Arsenal game that some of his players are "broken" and was asked today, ahead of the trip to the south coast, whether the week so far had been one of harsh words or arms around the shoulders of his beleaguered players.

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"It's a balance of both," Wilder admitted. "We can't bury the players. We've got a lot of games coming up. It's another really disappointing performance and result so we have to own that and it's a bit of both really."

With 26 goals conceded in their last seven games, a period which included promising displays in victory away at Luton Town and in defeat at Wolves but also saw five-goal concessions against Brighton (twice), Aston Villa and Arsenal, it doesn't take a great tactical mind to ascertain that United must stem the tide of goals against if they are to arrest their recent worrying slump that has them sleepwalking towards a Championship return.

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"You need to," Wilder admitted, "to give yourselves an opportunity and we have done that before. But there have been a lot of games that have gone from one to two to three and even to four very quickly, which is incredibly disappointing. I'm not trying to deflect anything from my team on Monday, because the performance and the manner of goals were unacceptable, but it was an outstanding performance from Arsenal as well.

"Did we make it easy for them? Yes, in terms of the goals. Of course stopping the goals is key for us to try and get a foothold in games and trying to get a result from games. We have been incredibly harshly in terms of the injuries - like Egan, Basham, Baldock. Robinson and Anel have been out of the team. We go to Luton and get a good result and we look at that as a blueprint, going to a place where a lot of teams struggle and put on a performance that was excellent. Then you come away and lose Rhys Norrington-Davies for the season and Max Lowe for the season.

"There's got to be a touch of sympathy in terms of the stability and consistency that we've not had, which every team needs but especially newly-promoted teams. But there's other stuff in there that we need to address and it's not just the back four or five. There's people in there not tracking runners and not putting in tackles where they have to put in tackles. So there's a lot to work on in a short period of time."