The Blades are rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table with one point from their 10 games so far, but are still only five points off fourth-bottom Bournemouth. That looks a long way away as things stand, however, and they need to get their campaign up and running soon as the pressure continues to mount on boss Paul Heckingbottom.
Despite reports in the media last week that he would be sacked if his side didn’t get a result at Arsenal last weekend, Heckingbottom remained in post after their 5-0 defeat and met the press this afternoon to preview the clash - with a host of topics on the agenda...
![George Baldock has had more sessions under his belt this week after making his return from a calf injury at Arsenal, while Ben Osborn is also getting stronger. Boss Heckingbottom said: “Will Osula and [Max] Lowey aren’t ready yet, but aren’t far away which is good. Hopefully Anel [Ahmedhodzic] and Oli [McBurnie] will be back soon enough, but not for this weekend.” Heckingbottom admitted United are “considering” handing Baldock a start, saying he is “in a good place” with his injury, and that McBurnie and Ahmedhodzic “shouldn’t be long. This game [v Wolves] is too early, the next game [v Brighton] is a possibility. We want them back as soon as possible but won’t risk anything.”](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2023/10/28/20/GettyImages-1761649211.jpg?crop=3:2&width=800)
1. Injury boosts
George Baldock has had more sessions under his belt this week after making his return from a calf injury at Arsenal, while Ben Osborn is also getting stronger. Boss Heckingbottom said: “Will Osula and [Max] Lowey aren’t ready yet, but aren’t far away which is good. Hopefully Anel [Ahmedhodzic] and Oli [McBurnie] will be back soon enough, but not for this weekend.” Heckingbottom admitted United are “considering” handing Baldock a start, saying he is “in a good place” with his injury, and that McBurnie and Ahmedhodzic “shouldn’t be long. This game [v Wolves] is too early, the next game [v Brighton] is a possibility. We want them back as soon as possible but won’t risk anything.”
2. A tough start
“You’ve got to approach every game to take the points. Some are tougher than others and Saturday proved that. We’ve taken other teams to the wire but there was definitely a gulf and we know some are going to be like that. We have more teams in the bottom half coming up but at this level I’m not sure it makes much difference. If we’re not at it and performing to our best we know it’ll be difficult but if we are, there’s no reason we can’t take points.”
3. Rhys Norrington-Davies
Heckingbottom said the injured defender is “progressing” in his comeback from a serious hamstring injury, doing a mixture of gym work and work on the grass. “He’s progressing really well, he’s seeing progression which is really good. But he’s not in our thoughts at the minute. We’re desperate for him to be back. When he comes back he’ll have missed a lot of football, we and he have to be patient when he is back. But it’ll be nice to get him amongst the group.”
4. On defeat at Arsenal
“Goals took the game away from us and made the game really difficult. When they bring on the subs they are and we are, it’s fighting against the emotion when we’re giving Ryan his debut and they’re bringing on multi-million point players. We have to go and compete, that’s where we are and that’s the level we’ve got ourselves to.”