Blades could join Pompey in recording one of lowest PL points hauls

… having shipped most goals in a 38-game season, they could also beat the 42-game record as well!

Sheffield United's 4-2 defeat to Manchester United means they have conceded the most goals ever in a 38-game Premier League season. Indeed, the Blades could still threaten the unwanted record set in 42 games United have won only three of their 34 league games to prop up the table on 16 points and could be relegated this weekend.

Back-to-back defeats conceding four goals, with the Old Trafford game coming on the back of a 4-1 loss to Burnley, have left them on the brink. But they are far from their heaviest losses of the season - or even to the Clarets after December's 5-0 rout at Turf Moor.

They have also lost 5-0 to Aston Villa, Brighton and Arsenal, with the Gunners additionally beating them 6-0 last month, while they were most memorably thumped 8-0 by Newcastle in September.

They are only the third team in Premier League history to concede five goals or more on six occasions in the same season and are keeping dangerous company in that category.

Derby's 11-point season in 2007-08 lives on in Premier League history - their record low points total was accompanied by the worst ever goal difference, -69 – while the 89 goals they conceded was the record for a 38-game season until Wednesday.

Derby lost 6-2 and 5-0 to Arsenal, 6-0 to Liverpool and Aston Villa, 5-0 to West Ham and 6-1 at Chelsea.

Chris Wilder's side are only eight goals away from being the second Premier League team to concede 100 in a season, after Swindon in 42 games in 1993-94.

United's average of 2.71 goals conceded per game has them on course for a record 103. Their goal difference, at an average of -1.73 per game, projects to come in just short of Derby's record at -66.

They need at least four points from four games to avoid becoming the seventh team to finish with less than 20. Sunderland managed just 19 in 2002-03 and 15 in 2005-06, Pompey 19 in 2009-10 (but they did have nine points deducted for entering administration), Villa 17 in 2015-16, Huddersfield 16 in 2018-19 and Derby the record 11.