Tottenham Hotspur vs Sheffield United; preview, team news, tickets & prediction

Spurs welcome Sheffield to London looking to secure their second home win this season. Here is a preview

Tottenham Hotspur are enjoying a brilliant start to the season under Ange Postecoglou as the first Australian to manage in the Premier League is certainly making a splash. The Lilywhites occupy a top-four spot in the early standings and are one of the unbeaten sides left in the top flight.

Tottenham have been full of attacking intent and goals whilst keeping two clean sheets from three games. They kicked off their campaign with a 2-2 draw at Brentford before beating Manchester United 2-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The North Londoners repeated that scoreline against Bournemouth with James Maddison netting his first goal for the club. 

Spurs would be returning from the September international break in a confident mood and they must keep that momentum going with another win against Paul Heckingbottom’s team. Indeed, head-to-head games between these sides have been balanced with an identical number of wins for each club.

Sheffield would certainly hope for the same fortunes as the last time they faced Tottenham when Iliman Ndiaye scored a superb late winner to secure passage to last season’s FA Cup quarter-finals. 

The South Yorkshire side have won two and drawn one of their last five meetings with Spurs in all competitions and they will be searching for their first away win of this season. Much-needed three points eluded Sheffield in their first three games but not for the want of trying after they fought back from a goal down only to concede 88th and 89th-minute winners in their last two games. 

Sheffield must get points on the board after their automatic promotion from last season’s EFL Championship and an upset in London could go a long way in setting the tone for their season.

After going down 1-0 to Crystal Palace on the opening day, Sheffield were close to an away point at Nottingham Forest before Chris Wood’s late winner. Their luck wasn’t any better against Manchester City despite surviving an Erling Haaland penalty, they went behind to the Norwegian and equalized in the 85th minute through Jayden Bogle. The afternoon ultimately ended on a sour note as Rodri stole the three points for City.   

Match tickets

The game will be played at the magnificent Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, 16th September 2023, at 3 pm UK time. 

Any Tottenham home game is a spectacle given their arena is one of the newest in European football and its state-of-the-art facilities always make for a pleasant experience for everyone involved. Tickets for the match have been on sale on the club websites and there should be a sell-out crowd when Sheffield come to town.

There is a sense of excitement with the ongoing rebuild at Tottenham and their fans would be in a cheerful mood for this game. The away fans are also not left out and getting Sheffield United tickets is expected to be difficult because they might be unavailable from official channels and fans may have to find theirs on a ticket reselling site.

Team news

Despite the considerable loss of Harry Kane, Spurs have refreshed the squad with James Maddison, Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario, Ashley Phillips, Alejo Veliz and Manor Solomon while Pedro Porro and Dejan Kulusevski were signed permanently. 

Fraser Forster will be unavailable against Sheffield with a back issue while Rodrigo Bentancur, Bryan Gil, Alfie Whiteman and Ryan Sessegnon remain long-term absentees through injury.

Heckingbottom will hope for better luck after the international break following the acquisition of Auston Trusty, Vini Souza, Cameron Archer, Tom Davies, Gustavo Hamer, Anis Slimane and Benie Traore. 

Survival in the Premier League is tough enough but Sheffield have had to deal with a host of injuries as they will once again be without John Fleck, Rhian Brewster, Rhys Norrington-Davies, Ismaila Coulibaly and Daniel Jebbison.

On a positive note, Anis Ben Slimane is expected to have returned to the fold after his injury and he would look to feature here after Heckingbottom earmarked him for playing minutes. 

Line-ups

Richarlison must get his Premier League goalscoring boots on as he effectively replaces Kane in the centre-forward position. Although a much different player, the Brazilian will be desperate to notably contribute to what Spurs are doing this season.

Maddison will also see this as a game to build better relationships with his attacking teammates as the Blades are expected to defend their box in numbers. The former Leicester City playmaker is becoming Spurs’ creative hub and a good test awaits him against Sheffield. 

Tottenham: Vicario; Porro, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie; Bissouma, Sarr; Kulusevski, Maddison, Son; Richarlison

The Blades will look to get Oliver McBurnie firing again after the striker suffered an injury in pre-season. McBurnie is their marksman and his return to match fitness could massively improve Sheffield’s bleak attacking fortunes. 

William Osula could be the man to make way for the Scotsman, meaning the Tottenham defenders may be in for a rough afternoon.

Sheffield United: Foderingham; Robinson, Egan, Ahmedhodzic; Baldock, Souza, Norwood, Lowe, Hamer; Traore, McBurnie

Prediction

Tottenham are in supreme attacking form and there is no way to look past them scoring a couple of goals against Sheffield. Perhaps a lucky break or a silly sending-off could tilt the game in the visitors’ favour?

The Blades will have to be defensively resolute and stick to a game plan but they lack the ruthlessness in both boxes to execute the perfect smash-and-grab in an away ground as daunting as Tottenham’s. Their hosts, on the other hand, have tightened up on the defensive end of the pitch so far this term. 

Tottenham Hotspur 2 : 0 Sheffield United