OLE FALLS TO BLADE STUNNER
Burke makes it an unlucky 13 for United
MANCHESTER UTD 1 SHEFFIELD UTD 2
THERE seems no accounting for this mixed-up season.
Given the chance to go top with a win against a side nailed on for relegation and with the worst points tally at the halfway stage in Premier League history, United fluffed their lines.
Goals from Kean Bryan and Oliver Burke delivered only a second win of the season for the seemingly doomed Blades and Wilder, below.
For United, who had equalised through Harry Maguire, this was the end of a 13-match unbeaten run stretching back to November 1. If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needed proof there are no easy games in this division here it was.
Sheffield were tenacious and courageous and ended a winless run away from home that stretched back to February 1.
United had their foot firmly on the Blades’ throats for much of the first half, keeping Wilder’s side pinned on the back foot, probing away looking for a break in the lines.
Yet for all their pressure, it was the visitors who carved out the clearest chance in the opening quarter, Billy Sharp picked out with a first time ball from John Fleck on 17 minutes only for the striker to hit his shot too close to David De Gea’s legs.
United had few clear chances for all their possession and swagger. Marcus Rashford pulled Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cutback wide and Mason
Greenwood had a shot blocked by Ethan Ampadu. Aside from that they found Sheffield United’s hardworking back lines difficult to break down.
United will have been disappointed to concede from a set piece, and particularly given Fleck’s corner should have been dealt with either by Axel
Tuanzebe or De Gea. Instead of either centre-half or goalkeeper getting head or hand to a ball swung in from the right to around four yards out, it was Bryan who timed his jump, glancing in off the back post.
It was an eighth goal United have conceded from a set piece this season. Just four teams have a worse record. They responded with their own corner routine, Anthony Martial turning the ball in only for Harry Maguire to be penalised for roughing up Aaron Ramsdale.
The Blades were good value for their lead at half time.
But United have built a decent reputation for holding their nerve and have come back from a first goal deficit to rescue 21 points in nine matches already before last
night. Greenwood could have pulled them level just four minutes after the break, Fernandes slicing the Blades open with a neat pass only for the young striker to pull his right-foot shot wide of the far post.
Fernandes set the tone for the fightback, tearing around the field, chasing every cause, lost or not.
A free-kick from Fernandes five yards outside the area went off the wall and into the stands, but the Blades’ relief was brief. From the subsequent corner Maguire timed his run beautifully, bulleting home Telles’s centre from 10 yards out.
United were stunned in the 74th minute when a failure to clear their lines saw them fall behind again.
De Gea had an opportunity to put the ball into the stands but picked out Oliver Norwood with a weak clearance.
After a series of passes the ball fell to Oliver Burke, his shot took a big deflection off Tuanzebe and past the Spaniard.