Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United have kept nine Championship clean sheets this term

Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday renew acquaintances in the Steel City derby on Sunday at Bramall Lane. Mark O’Haire is expecting a close contest…

Sheffield United v Sheffield WednesdaySunday November 10, 12:30Live on Sky Sports

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder praised his team for “going right to the end” in their late, late 2-1 win at Bristol City in midweek. The Blades scored in the 86th and 98th minute to come from behind at Ashton Gate, claiming top honours and moving up to second place in the Championship, just two points off the second-tier summit.

Wilder said: “I didn’t think it was a smash and grab, we just needed to raise our levels at half-time and we couldn’t, so we made changes. I thought we started playing in the last 20 minutes after we went 1-0 down. The players were extremely brave, went for the winner and they were memorable scenes for the supporters who’ve made a long journey.”

Wilder’s side now take a three-match winning streak into Sunday’s Steel City derby but have a couple of injury concerns ahead of the Bramall Lane battle. Kieffer Moore will be assessed after the Welsh international lasted just 11 minutes off the bench in midweek, while Rhian Brewster missed the trip. Oliver Arblaster also wasn’t fit enough to start at Ashton Gate.

Sheffield Wednesday bounced back from their 6-2 shellacking at home to Watford by enjoying a comfortable 2-0 success against Norwich at Hillsborough in midweek. Josh Windass opened the scoring early on and Dominic Iorfa climbed highest from a free-kick to double the hosts’ advantage before the interval as the Owls’ responded in style.

A first clean sheet since August helped guide Wednesday to within touching distance of the top-half as Svante Ingelsson was brought in to play an important role in adding bite to the Owls midfield. Head coach Danny Rohl was full of praise for his players post-match and suggested a dressing room inquisition post-Watford helped to inspire a positive response.

Rohl said, “Credit to my team. It is not easy when you get such a setback. We spoke after the game and we looked at conceded goals. We were very focused; we concentrated on our match plan. It was about individual mistakes, this is what we had to stop and we stopped it. We were very committed. They delivered with heart, with passion. It was fantastic to see.”

City rivals United and Wednesday cross swords in the Steel City derby for the first time in five years on Sunday. The pair played out two goalless draws back in 2018/19 and five of the last seven showdowns between the two teams have ended all-square. At Bramall Lane, the Blades boast a W5-D10-L1 head-to-head record against the Owls since 1970.

Sheffield United 1.96 have an impressive start to the season, returning W9-D3-L2 thus far with the bulk of their best work taking place at Bramall Lane (W5-D1-L0). Chris Wilder’s troops have kept five clean sheets in six home outings and sit second in the home Expected Points (xP) rankings, giving away just 0.55 Expected Goals (xG) per-game as hosts.

Sheffield Wednesday 4.40 have been difficult to read (W5-D3-L6), although the Owls have tended to fall short when facing-off against the division’s high-flyers. Danny Rohl’s charges have posted W1-D0-L5 when taking on top-seven teams and have that solitary success in eight against top-half clubs, whilst ranking in the bottom-eight for xP overall and away.

Steel City derbies rarely escalate into thrilling, high-scoring affairs. In fact, four of the past five fixtures have produced a maximum of one goal with the 0-0 draw banking in each of the most recent three renewals.

With Sheffield United having recorded nine shutouts in their opening 14 league fixtures this season, clean sheets could again be on the menu here.

With that in-mind, the opportunity to back Both Teams To Score ‘No’ at 1.92 shouldn’t be missed.

It’s proven a profitable formula in 54% of all Championship contests this term with both United and Wednesday key contributors to that total – between them, the two rivals have seen a collective 19 (68%) of 28 second-tier showdowns pay-out for BTTS ‘No’ backers.

Back Both Teams To Score ‘No’ @ 1.92