After being on the wrong end of a the demolition at the Emirates, Palace will have had a good ten days to reflect and prepare for a game against a side that sits bottom of the table. It is not quite a must win, but a positive result will go some way to delaying some fears of being dragged into real trouble this season.
MATCH INFORMATION
- 8pm – 30th January 2024
- Selhurst Park, Holmesdale Road, London SE25 6PU
PREVIOUS MEETING
Two first half goals from Jeffery Schlupp and Eberechi Eze sealed the points for Palace back in January 2021 which was the last time the Blades visited South London.
MAN OF THE MATCH – James McArthur (8.1)
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Tony Harrington. Assistants: Dan Cook, Mark Scholes. Fourth official: Gavin Ward. VAR: Chris Kavanagh. Assistant VAR: Natalie Aspinall.
TEAM NEWS
PALACE – Cheick Doucoure, Michael Olise, Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, Rob Holding, and Joel Ward are all expected to miss out. Jordan Ayew may return after returning from AFCON duty with Ghana.
UNITED – Chris Basham, John Egan, George Baldock, Rhian Brewster, Max Lowe, and Tom Davies are all expected to be unavailable.
DISCIPLINARY RECORD
RED CARDS – Oliver McBurnie (2), Jordan Ayew (1), Rhian Brewster (1)
YELLOW CARDS (5+) – Gustavo Hamer (6), Jayden Bogle (6), Oliver Norwood (6), Anel Ahmedhodzic (6), Jack Robinson (6)
FORM GUIDE
Last FIVE meetings between the two sides;
- 12/08/23 Sheffield United 0-1 Palace
- 08/05/21 Sheffield United 0-2 Palace
- 02/01/21 Palace 2-0 Sheffield United
- 01/02/20 Palace 0-1 Sheffield United
- 18/08/19 Sheffield United 1-0 Palace
Last FIVE results for Palace:
- 20/01/24 Arsenal 5-0 Palace
- 17/01/24 Everton 1-0 Palace
- 04/01/24 Palace 0-0 Everton
- 30/12/23 Palace 3-1 Brentford
- 27/12/23 Chelsea 2-1 Palace
Last FIVE results for United;
- 27/01/24 Sheffield United 2-5 Brighton
- 21/01/24 Sheffield United 2-2 West Ham
- 06/01/24 Gillingham 0-4 Sheffield United
- 30/12/23 Manchester City 2-0 Sheffield United
- 26/12/23 Sheffield United 2-3 Luton
LEAGUE POSITION
Heading into the fixture, Palace are 15th in the Premier League with 21 points while Sheffield United are 20th with 10 points, both from 21 games played.
RECORD AGAINST UNITED
- Played 58
- Won 24
- Drawn 12
- Lost 22
FORM PLAYERS ACCORDING TO WHO SCORED
- Michael Olise 7.60
- Eberechi Eze 7.13
- Oliver McBurnie 6.75
- Vinicius Souza 6.59
ONE TO WATCH
BEN BRERETON -DIAZ
FORMER CLUBS – Manchester United, Stoke City, Nottingham Forest, Blackburn Rovers, Villareal
The former England youth and now Chilean international is an early January signing for Sheffield Wednesday and managed to get on the score sheet on his full debut against West Ham.
KEY CLASH
EBERECHI EZE v VINICIUS SOUZA
If Eze puts in a performance they the Eagles will likely take all three points and while he will be without the support of Olise for this game most likely, he has enough about him to influence a positive result against such opposition.
PRE-MATCH STATS
- GOALS – Odsonne Edouard (6 – 19th in PL)
- ASSISTS – Jordan Ayew (5 – 13th in PL)
- PASSES – Joachim Andersen (1,226 – 17th in PL)
- TACKLES – Tyrick Mitchell (50 – 11th in PL)
- TOUCHES – Joachim Andersen (1,526 – 19th in PL)
- SHOTS – Ebere Eze (44 – 14th in PL)
- FOULS – Jordan Ayew (32 – 5th in PL)
- DISPOSSESSED – Jordan Ayew (51 – 2nd in PL)
- SAVES – Sam Johnstone (34 – 18th in PL)
- CLEARANCES – Joachim Andersen (106 – 2nd in PL)
- BIG CHANCES MISSED – Jordan Ayew/ Odsonne Edouard (4)
THE NUMBERS
Palace have won their past 3 Premier League games against Sheffield United, keeping a clean sheet each time. They last won 4 consecutive league games against the Blades between 1987 and 1991.
The Blades have won just 1 of their last 6 away league games against Palace, a 1-0 victory in the Premier League in February 2020.
All 7 Premier League meetings between Palace and Sheffield United have been won, with the winning side keeping a clean sheet each time. It is the most played fixture in the competition’s history to never have both teams score in a game.
The Blades have scored fewer (17) and conceded more (51) Premier League goals than any other side this season. They are the only side yet to score in the opening 30 minutes of a match so far, with their earliest strike coming in the 33rd minute (Cameron Archer v Everton in September).
Palace midfielder Jefferson Lerma has the highest expected goals total among all Premier League players yet to score this season (2.1). He has had 22 shots without finding the net so far.
Ben Brereton Diaz scored for Sheffield United on his Premier League debut against West Ham last time out. The only player to score in both of their first 2 Premier League games for the Blades was Brian Deane back in August 1992.
TEB PREDICTION
Palace head into this fixture have yet to play all three of the current bottom three at home this season, so they really must take advantage of that fact and take all three points. They must be way of the opposition as they can score goals but they cannot prevent them either which is why they are struggling to acclimatise this season. We can see the Eagles making up for that big loss against Arsenal with all three points here.
FINAL SCORE: 3-1 to Palace
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