Sheffield United host Luton Town at Bramall Lane in a festive showdown in the fight for Premier League survival.
Victory would see Sheffield Utd move up to 19th in the table, whilst Luton can climb out of the relegation zone with a win if Nottingham Forest fail to beat Newcastle in the lunchtime kick-off.
Team News
Anel Ahmedhodzic is unlikely to feature for Sheffield Utd after he missed their 1-1 draw at Aston Villa with a hamstring injury.
Chris Basham (ankle), John Egan (foot), Rhian Brewster, Rhys Norrington-Davies (both hamstring), Tom Davies (thigh) and Daniel Jebbison (illness) are still sidelined.
Luton have no fresh injury concerns to report following their win over Newcastle as Tom Lockyer (illness), Dan Potts (hamstring) and Reece Burke (thigh) remain ruled out.
When is Kick-Off?
Sheffield Utd host Luton at Bramall Lane on Boxing Day in a 3pm GMT kick-off, live on Amazon Prime in the UK.
Stat Attack
- This is Sheffield Utd’s first Premier League clash against Luton.
- Luton have won two of their last five league visits to Sheffield Utd (W2, L3).
- Sheffield Utd have kept clean sheets in three of their last four home matches against Luton.
- Seven of Sheffield Utd’s nine points this season have been scored at home.
- Three of Elijah Adebayo’s four league goals for Luton this season have been scored from headers.
Prediction
Although slightly unlucky to be sat bottom at Xmas, Sheffield United clearly look more defensively solid now under Chris Wilder because they were excellent in restricting Villa throughout the game, whilst Wes Foderingham played a crucial role despite conceding a late equaliser.
Wilder’s Blades though will need to come out and attack this game rather than sit back deep defensively because this will likely be a more open game, and one which they must win if want to put themselves right back into the mix for survival.
Luton though were defensively resilient in their smash-and-grab win over Newcastle with a clinical set piece, yet they showed more desire across the pitch than the Magpies even when under immense pressure up their own end which they must channel coming into this game.
Now if Sheffield Utd can show more attack without compromising their defensive solidness and Luton play like they did on Saturday, I think that this could be a really close battle where a draw might suit the Hatters more than the Blades.
Prediction: Sheffield United 1-1 Luton
Result: Sheffield United 2-3 Luton
Leave a Reply