FA Cup sojourn to League Two playoff hopefuls Gillingham offered Sheffield United a prime opportunity to stroll to their most emphatic win of the season, and Chris Wilder’s men did not rest on their laurels on January 6, putting four past their fourth-tier counterparts without reply.
Will Osula’s first-half brace preceded a second-half double from James McAtee in the most straightforward of successes for Sheffield United, who will have recent history on their side on Saturday, as they have progressed from each of their last four fourth-round ties in the FA Cup.
Semi-finalists last season and quarter-finalists in 2019-20 and 2020-21, the Blades have reason to believe that another deep cup run is on the cards despite their Premier League predicament, although they avoided defeat in the top flight for just the sixth time this season during the recent visit of West Ham United.
During a heated encounter in which both sides saw one of their own banished from the field of play, an Oli McBurnie spot kick with 103 minutes on the board salvaged a point for Sheffield United in a 2-2 thriller, although the basement-dwelling Blades still have a seven-point disadvantage to 17th-placed Everton.
Furthermore, Wilder’s team are yet to string together a three-game unbeaten run across all competitions in the 2023-24 season, and the last time they played out a 2-2 draw at Bramall Lane – sharing the spoils with Everton on September 2 – Newcastle United subjected them to an eight-goal embarrassment in their following home match.
repeat of that chastening afternoon is surely off the cards if Brighton’s recent offensive displays in the Premier League are anything to go by, though, as Roberto De Zerbi’s team drew a blank for the second time in three matches when welcoming Wolverhampton Wanderers to the Amex Stadium on Monday.
By holding out for a 0-0 draw on the South Coast, Wolves snapped Brighton’s exceptional 22-game scoring streak on home soil – a sequence stretching back to last February’s 1-0 Premier League loss to Fulham – but the Seagulls did not leave their best shooting boots behind for their FA Cup trip to Stoke.
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Indeed, defensive duo Pervis Estupinan and Lewis Dunk both made the net bulge in between a Jan Paul van Hecke’s own goal and Lewis Baker’s penalty, and a late Joao Pedro brace extinguished the Potters’ hopes of a place in the fourth round, where they have now appeared in each of the last four campaigns.
Brighton can empathise with Sheffield United when it comes to semi-final defeats – the Seagulls’ journey ended at the hands of Manchester United in last year’s final four – but they have only been defeated in one of their last five fourth-round showdowns and have a five-game unbeaten run to extend at Bramall Lane.
However, not since the 2004-05 Championship campaign have Brighton bested Sheffield United, whose 1-1 draw at the Amex in November stretched their unbeaten streak against the Seagulls to seven matches, during which time the South Coast upstarts have failed to keep a single clean sheet.
