Struggling Sheffield United players have to look at themselves in mirror with season form not good enough

Sheffield United’s players must look at themselves in the mirror and come up with some answers as to how to kickstart their faltering season after it reached its latest low point at the weekend. That was the brutally honest opinion of midfielder Ollie Norwood after Saturday’s 5-0 hammering at the Emirates.

The result saw United beat their own record, set three years ago, for the worst start to a season in Premier League history after 10 games. They are still looking for their first win of the campaign and look bereft of belief and confidence after a chastening start to life back in the top-flight, going into this weekend’s crunch clash with Wolves with a goal difference of minus-22.

United frustrated Arsenal for the first half hour or so of their clash, before Eddie Nketiah scored the first of his three goals, but offered no attacking threat of their own. Their expected goals metric, of 0.03, was the fourth lowest created by a Premier League team in the last six seasons and United will go into November with none of their players finding the back of the net from open play since defeat at Tottenham Hotspur in mid-September.

In an honest post-match interview at Arsenal, stand-in skipper Norwood insisted that he and his teammates are “100 per cent” behind manager Paul Heckingbottom and has called on United’s players to take responsibility themselves and turn their season around. “It’s easy to say we stick together through the good times, but now we’ve got to show it,” the midfielder said.

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“We have to really dig in, have a look in the mirror and look at ourselves individually. Because it’s not good enough. Personally, individually, collectively. Getting beat every week is not nice and we need to do something about it because it’s not acceptable.

“It starts with each individual looking at themselves and asking what they can do better, and work harder. We’ve got to find a way to be harder to play against. As a team, as a group, we’re not doing enough to stop the opposition. And that’s the disappointing thing.”

Norwood described United’s dressing room as “angry and disappointed” after defeat at the Emirates, which left them bottom of the table and the only side in English football’s top six tiers not to taste victory so far this season. Upcoming games against the likes of Wolves, Bournemouth and Burnley will define United’s season, rather than clashes against Arsenal and Manchester United in their last two outings, but the Blades have given themselves a mountain to climb after their start.

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“We’ve had one point all season,” Norwood added. “We’ve come close a couple of times but let’s be honest, it’s not been good enough. The level of performance hasn’t been good enough, the competitiveness hasn’t been good enough. As a group we pride ourselves on that and we’ve got to find a way to come up with something.

“We’ve all got to do more, and we know that. I don’t want to speak on anybody else’s behalf, on what anybody else can do and somebody should do this or that. We got to look at ourselves, look in the mirror, and find some answers.”