{"id":554881,"date":"2020-06-24T01:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=554881"},"modified":"2020-06-22T16:13:50","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T20:13:50","slug":"battle-for-top-six-intensifies-as-manchester-united-welcome-sheffield-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/06\/24\/battle-for-top-six-intensifies-as-manchester-united-welcome-sheffield-united\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle for Top Six Intensifies as Manchester United Welcome Sheffield United"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/category\/premier-league\/manchester-united\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Manchester United<\/a> will welcome <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/sheffield-united-club-news-analysis-fixtures\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sheffield United<\/a> to Old Trafford on Wednesday evening. Both teams will be looking for their first wins since the Premier League restarted.<\/p>\n<h2>Race for Top Six intensifies as Manchester United host Sheffield United<\/h2>\n<h3>Head to Head<\/h3>\n<p>The game between these two teams earlier on this season was nothing short of spectacular. Sheffield United led by two goals at Bramall Lane, before the Red Devils would score three goals in seven second half minutes. That wasn\u2019t the end of the drama, however, as Sheffield United would equalise in the last minute through <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/78b8ac63\/Oliver-McBurnie\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oli McBurnie<\/a>, as the Blades salvaged a draw.<\/p>\n<p>Both teams are yet to win since the league restarted. Manchester United took a point away from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium thanks to a <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/507c7bdf\/Bruno-Fernandes\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bruno Fernandes<\/a> penalty 10 minutes before the end.<\/p>\n<p>Sheffield United would have felt hard done by to not take all three points away from their first game of project restart against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/aston-villa-club-news-analysis-fixtures\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aston Villa<\/a>. Villa\u2019s goalkeeper <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/bdedffac\/Orjan-Nyland\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Orjan Nyland<\/a> had caught the ball from a free-kick, however. he crossed the line with the ball, but this wasn\u2019t seen by Hawk-eye, and gave referee Michael Oliver no choice but to wave play on as his watch, which signals when a goal is scored, didn\u2019t vibrate. More disappointment was to come as they were hammered 3-0 by Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<h3>Team News<\/h3>\n<p>The big news coming into this game is that Sheffield United will be without goalkeeper <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/e5a76dfe\/Dean-Henderson\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dean Henderson<\/a> for this one. Manchester United is Henderson\u2019s parent club and therefore won\u2019t be eligible for this one.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/debe38a0\/John-Egan\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Egan<\/a> will also miss out due to suspension after being sent off against Newcastle on Sunday. <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/312626c1\/Jack-OConnell\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jack O\u2019Connell<\/a> has been missing since the restart after picking up a knee injury in training, whilst Chris Wilder is waiting for news on <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/dbe56a33\/David-McGoldrick\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David McGoldrick<\/a> after he limped off against Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, the Red Devils have an almost fit squad. <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/867239d3\/Paul-Pogba\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Pogba<\/a> came on from the substitutes bench on Friday night, which was his first game since January. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is waiting to hear news on <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/f5deef4c\/Victor-Lindelof\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Lindelof<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/2baec6ce\/Axel-Tuanzebe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Axel Tuanzebe<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/def899bd\/Phil-Jones\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Phil Jones<\/a>, with the former limping off against Tottenham on Friday.<\/p>\n<h3>Prediction<\/h3>\n<p>Both teams will fancy their chances in this one. Manchester United will look to close the gap on fourth-placed Chelsea. Sheffield United, meanwhile, will move ahead of their opponents with a win.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the impressive season the visitors have had, they have struggled since the Premier League restarted. With Fernandes and Pogba looking to link up from the start for the first time, Manchester United might just have the upper hand in this one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction &#8211; Manchester United 3 &#8211; 1 Sheffield United\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"hJmocGf3Rh9sBoD7WUyrZg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1211144425\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'hJmocGf3Rh9sBoD7WUyrZg',sig:'q_37W7C-s2LHDypg9Bv2u45mOEnB-ucagGH-6nN6ivY=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1211144425',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United will welcome Sheffield United to Old Trafford on Wednesday evening. Both teams will be looking for their first wins since the Premier League restarted. Race for Top Six intensifies as Manchester United host Sheffield United Head to Head The game between these two teams earlier on this season was nothing short of spectacular. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3510,"featured_media":554907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,18,3839],"tags":[5717,36,40,771,136],"class_list":["post-554881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-featured","category-manchester-united","category-sheffield-united","tag-john-egan","tag-manchester-united","tag-premier-league","tag-sheffield-united","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Ben Robinson, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3510"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}