Sheffield United finished a fair bit ahead of Sunderland in the regular season but how does that transfer to individual performances?
The Blades and the Black Cats will head to Wembley next weekend aiming to join Leeds United and Burnley in taking a place back in the Premier League.
For United it will be a quick return to the top flight after last season’s humbling relegation but for Sunderland, it’s been a long wait for the supporters to regularly come up against Premier League opposition having been relegated in 2017.
Neither side have a particularly good record at Wembley, though Blades boss Chris Wilder has insisted that will have no bearing on what happens next week.
"I don't feel there's a negativity because of our previous campaigns,” Wilder insisted. “There feels like a freshness about it, a real belief that we can make history and put to bed all the other things that have gone on previously.”
There should be plenty of confidence in both sides after excellent campaigns and they have a win each in the head-to-head this season but which players have stood out the most?
We went to WhoScored.com to find out how they rated the best players from each team throughout the 2024/25 campaign to see who comes out on top ahead of the Wembley showdown. Players must have featured more than 10 times and those not at the club don’t count.
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5. Jobe Bellingham
Another of Sunderland's key men and a consistent performer, Bellingham had an average rating of 6.97 | Getty Images
6. Enzo Le Fee
Enzo Le Fee went to Sunderland with a big reputation and was quite a coup. He maybe didn't quite match it but he still had an average rating of 6.95 | Chris Fryatt
7. Romaine Mundle
Mundle got five goals and two assists from 22 Championship appearances to give him an average rating of 6.95 | Frank Reid
8. Chris Mepham
A stalwart in the Sunderland side, Mepham had an average rating of 6.91 Photo: Stu Forster