Burnley vs. Sheffield Utd
Venue: Turf Moor
Kick off: 12PM
Two sides with aspirations of European qualification for next season will go head-to-head in the Premier League at lunchtime as Burnley play host to Sheffield United at Turf Moor.
The clubs are only separated by two points in the Premier League table, with Sheffield United occupying seventh on 47 points while Burnley lie 10th on 45 points after 32 matches.
The defensive resilience of Sean Dyche’s men paid dividends once again as Burnley kept their second clean sheet in a row with a hard-fought 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Monday.
The ever-present Ben Mee – so often at the forefront of Burnley’s efforts to preserve a slender lead – scored his first Premier League goal since January 2017 at Selhurst Park as Dyche’s men kept the race for the European places very much alive.
Following on from a 5-0 drubbing at recently-dethroned 2018-19 champions Manchester City, Burnley have recorded victories by a solitary goal against Watford and Palace since the restart, and the Clarets have only tasted defeat once in their last eight league outings.
Dyche’s men are also unbeaten in their last five league matches at home, having taken points off Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur before play was called to a halt, and Burnley can leapfrog the North London pair with a win this weekend should Arsenal and Spurs lose to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton respectively.
On an individual level, Nick Pope will be aiming to keep his 14th clean sheet of the season as he leads the way in the battle for the Premier League Golden Glove, with the Englishman having recorded one more shut-out than Alisson and Ederson as things stand.
Meanwhile, Sheffield United also demonstrated exactly why they are among the Premier League’s European chasers as they enjoyed an impressive 3-1 victory over fellow top-four rivals Tottenham on Thursday.
The Blades stuck to the task at hand as further strikes from Lys Mousset and Oli McBurnie allowed Chris Wilder’s men to leapfrog Spurs and enter gameweek 33 in eighth – eight points adrift of fifth-placed Manchester United.
In doing so, the Blades also managed to end a four-game winless run in all competitions since the restart, and with a challenging set of fixtures against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Chelsea, Leicester City and Everton still to come, it was imperative that Wilder’s men regained their confidence after a lacklustre opening to Project Restart.
The Blades will now endeavour to score their first goal on the road in the top flight since February, and Sheffield United have only managed to pick up one league win from their last seven away from home – potentially a cause for concern for Wilder as he looks to bring European football to the Bramall Lane faithful.
However, Sheffield ran riot against Burnley in the reverse fixture and enjoyed a 3-0 victory courtesy of a John Lundstram brace and a John Fleck strike.
Burnley possible XI: Pope, Bardsley, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor, Brownhill, Westwood, Cork, McNeil, Vydra, Rodriguez.
Sheffield United possible XI: Henderson, Egan, Basham, Robinson, Baldock, Berge, Norwood, Osborn, Stevens, McBurnie, Mousset.
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