🦁 PL Previews: Can Sheffield United avoid the drop? | OneFootball

Sheffield United are back in the Premier League at the second time of asking but can the top flight’s most recent yo-yo club avoid the drop?

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Transfers 🔁

In: Auston Trusty (Arsenal, £5m), Bénie Traoré (BK Hacken, £4m), Anis Ben Slimane (Brondby, £2.3m), Yasser Larouci (Troyes, loan)

Out: Iliman Ndiaye (Marseille, £20m), Harry Boyes (Wycombe, loan) Enda Stevens (Stoke, free) Billy Sharp, Jack O’Connell (both released)

Transfer balance: +£8.7m

Key fixtures 📆

🔑 Key player: Oliver Norwood

With Sander Berge on the verge of leaving the club to join fellow Premier League new boys Burnley, the bulk of Sheffield United’s midfield dynamism will come from one man.

On the surface, heading into a top flight campaign with Oliver Norwood as your lynchpin might not fill too many hearts with optimism.

But after a career that never got out of third gear for Reading and Brighton, the Northern Ireland international has found his home in south Yorkshire.

This will be Norwood’s fourth season with the Blades and was the definition of ever-present last term, starting every game in the Championship, and will almost certainly repeat the trick this time around.

What has changed since last season? 🤔

Sheffield United were comfortably the second best side in the Championship last season, finishing on 91 points, a whopping 10 ahead of eventual play-off winners Luton.

With Paul Heckingbottom in charge and an experience of the Premier League, the layman would say that the Blades could well stay up come next May.

But dig a little deeper and the situation at Bramall Lane is concerning for all fans from the red side of the city.

Of their top five chance-creators from last season, only Norwood has stayed at the club. Important Man City loanees James McAtee and Jake Doyle have not returned and the second-highest scorer from last term who remains at United is Anel Ahmedhodžić, a central defender who netted six.

It all feels quite worrying.

Predicted XI 🔮

(3-5-2) — Foderingham; Ahmedhodžić, Egan, Trusty; Baldock, Slimane, Norwood, Coulibaly Lowe; Traoré, Osula

Where will they finish? 🏆

Premier League: 19th

FA Cup: Third round

EFL Cup: Fourth round

See all of our club previews right here.