Monday’s Premier League match is an important one at both ends of the table as Mikel Arteta’s Gunners visit Bramall Lane. We look ahead to the game with our Sheffield United vs Arsenal prediction and preview.
Sheffield United vs Arsenal Stats: Quick Hits
- Arsenal are huge favourites to beat Sheffield United on Monday. The Opta supercomputer assigns the Gunners the highest win probability of any team on Matchday 27 (70.0%).
- Sheffield United could become the first team in English league history to concede five or more goals in four straight home games across all competitions.
- Arsenal, meanwhile, won 6-0 at West Ham and 5-0 at Burnley on their last two road trips. No side in the history of England’s top four tiers has won three successive away games by a margin of five or more goals.
Match Preview
There’s more than a hint of David versus Goliath about the final fixture of Matchday 27 in the Premier League, as Sheffield United host Arsenal on Monday. While Chris Wilder’s side appear to be sinking without trace, suffering a series of chastening defeats at Bramall Lane, the Gunners have been free-scoring in 2024 and will be confident of putting the Blades to the sword.
Sheffield United have conceded five goals in each of their last three home games in all competitions, losing 5-2 to Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup, then suffering 5-0 defeats to Aston Villa and Brighton again in the Premier League. They are now looking to avoid the ignominy of becoming the first team in English league history to concede five or more goals in four straight home matches.
Arsenal, meanwhile, have routed West Ham 6-0 and Burnley 5-0 on their last two Premier League road trips. No team in the history of England’s top four tiers has ever won three straight away games by a margin of five or more goals before. The result of October’s reverse fixture at the Emirates Stadium? A 5-0 Arsenal win.
Mikel Arteta’s men might sense that history is within their grasp on Monday, then, after putting on another scintillating display against Newcastle United last week. The Gunners dominated from the off as they clinched a 4-1 win, with Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Jakub Kiwior netting after Sven Botman’s own goal got the ball rolling.
The midfield trio of Martin Ødegaard, Declan Rice and Jorginho bossed proceedings as Arsenal suffocated Newcastle, recovering possession in the attacking third of the pitch 11 times before half-time, by which point the Magpies had only managed one touch in the Gunners’ area.
Arsenal have won all six of their Premier League games in 2024 by an aggregate score of 25-3. Only three teams have had a longer winning run to start a calendar year in the competition’s history – Manchester City in 2021 (13 games), Manchester United in 2009 (nine) and Liverpool in 2020 (eight).
Saka has scored in the last five of those games, also netting twice in his last two on the road in the Premier League. He could now become just the third player to score multiple goals on three consecutive away appearances in the competition, after Dennis Bergkamp (in September 1997) and Harry Kane (September 2017).
While Arsenal’s attackers are in blistering form, their backline has been no less impressive, conceding an astonishingly low 1.88 expected goals against (xGA) across their six league games this calendar year. For context, City – with the league’s second-meanest defence in that time – have allowed 6.83, and at the other end of the scale, Newcastle have conceded 20.51.
Arteta could receive a treble boost ahead of Monday’s game, with Thomas Partey back in contention, while Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko will face late fitness checks. Jurriën Timber is edging closer to full fitness, but this match will come too soon for the Dutchman.
Sheffield United put in a much-improved performance against Wolves last time out, but it still wasn’t enough as Pablo Sarabia’s header condemned them to a 1-0 defeat at Molineux. Wilder’s team had plenty of chances to rescue a point in the West Midlands, but Rhian Brewster, James McAtee and Auston Trusty all fluffed their lines when presented with good opportunities.
The Blades have kept just one clean sheet in the Premier League all season, in a 1-0 win over Brentford in December. Their total of 66 goals conceded after 26 games, meanwhile, is the most shipped at this stage of a top-flight campaign since Ipswich Town in 1963-64 (74 goals).
Anel Ahmedhodzic, who has worn the captain’s armband in John Egan’s absence for much of this season, is among those tasked with keeping Arsenal’s in-form forwards quiet, but he has finished on the losing side on 16 of his 20 Premier League appearances in total (two wins, two draws). In the competition’s history, only Juninho Bacuna, Josip Drmic and Oliver Burke have suffered more defeats in their first 20 matches (17 each).
If the Blades are to land a blow at the other end, Oli McBurnie could have a key role to play, having either scored (four times) or assisted (once) in each of his last five home Premier League games. However, Sheffield United have failed to win any of those matches, drawing two and losing three.
Defender Mason Holgate is still suspended after seeing red for his horror challenge on Kaoru Mitoma two weeks ago, while Cameron Archer and Anis Ben Slimane will not return from injury before the March international break. Ben Brereton Díaz is back, however, having scored two goals in his first three league appearances for the Blades before sustaining a hamstring issue.
Sheffield United vs Arsenal United Head-to-Head
Eddie Nketiah scored a hat-trick as Arsenal produced a five-star display in the reverse fixture in north London, with Tomiyasu and Fábio Vieira also on target.
Sheffield United have lost their last three league games against Arsenal by an aggregate score of 10-1, having only lost two of their previous nine against them prior to this run (two wins, five draws).
Bramall Lane was not traditionally a happy hunting ground for Arsenal, but that has changed in recent years with the Gunners winning three of their last four league games there (one loss), as many as in their previous 12 (five draws, four defeats).
They now have the chance to win three successive away league games against Sheffield United for the very first time.
Gabriel Martinelli was on target when Arsenal last visited Bramall Lane in April 2021, with Alexandre Lacazette netting twice in a 3-0 win. The Blades saw their relegation to the Championship confirmed six days later.
Recent Form
Sheffield United have only won one of their last 10 Premier League games, drawing two and losing seven.
Following their chastening defeats to Villa and Brighton, they could become the first team in English league history to lose three straight home matches by a margin of five or more goals.
Arsenal, meanwhile, have achieved the extraordinary feat of scoring two or more goals in their last seven halves of Premier League football (second half vs Liverpool, both halves vs West Ham, Burnley and Newcastle), becoming the first team in the competition’s history to do so.
In all competitions, however, Arsenal have failed to win five of their last eight away games (three wins), drawing with PSV and Liverpool and losing to Villa, Fulham and Porto.
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Monday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
Sheffield United vs Arsenal Prediction
Of 10,000 match simulations conducted by the Opta supercomputer ahead of kick-off, Arsenal won a massive 70.0% – more than any other team ahead of Matchday 27’s fixtures.
Sheffield United are given just a 10.2% chance of victory, and a 19.8% chance of holding out for a point.
Despite their flying start to 2024, Arsenal remain third-favourites for the title in the supercomputer’s season predictions, winning the league in 14.3% of scenarios, compared to 51.5% for City and 34.1% for Liverpool.
Sheffield United, meanwhile, are given next to no hope of escaping relegation, only surviving in 0.4% of scenarios. Their 59.5% chance of finishing bottom is the greatest probability any team in the league has of finishing in a specific position.
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