Sheffield United’s unwanted century – A look at the Blades’ defensive woes

Here is a statistical look at the worst defensive season the Premier League has seen.

Ton up

Chris Wilder’s side, remarkably, have equalled a record set when Premier League teams still played 42 games each.

Swindon, who propped up the table in 1993-94, were until now the only team to concede 100 goals in a season since the top flight’s rebranding the year prior to that.

The Blades had already surpassed Derby’s 38-game record of 89 after their 4-2 defeat to Manchester United left them on 92 goals against.

A 5-1 hammering by Newcastle confirmed their relegation and took them to 97 before they shipped three at home to Forest.

And, with two games still to play, away to Everton and at home to Tottenham, the record will surely be broken.

Sheffield United’s average of 2.78 goals conceded per game is far beyond Swindon’s previous worst of 2.38.

Unlucky 13

The aforementioned loss to Newcastle set two other unwanted records.

The Magpies had also beaten them 8-0 at Bramall Lane earlier in the season and their 13 goals across the two games are the most ever scored by a Premier League team against a single opponent in the same season.

The Blades also became the first team to concede five or more goals seven times in one Premier League campaign.

Arsenal also feature twice on that list, winning 5-0 at the Emirates Stadium and 6-0 at Bramall Lane, while further 5-0 losses have come against Burnley – costing Wilder’s predecessor Paul Heckingbottom his job – and Aston Villa and Brighton in a run of three successive home games in February and March completed by the Gunners.

Even the Clarets, who could yet be relegated with United, narrowly missed out on emulating Arsenal and Newcastle after winning the recent return fixture 4-1.

Again the Blades broke the record held by those same Derby and Swindon teams.

The Rams lost 6-2 and 5-0 to Arsenal, 6-0 to Liverpool and Aston Villa, 5-0 to West Ham and 6-1 at Chelsea in their 11-point relegation season of 2007-08 while Swindon were beaten 5-0 by Liverpool, Leeds and Villa, 5-1 at Southampton, 6-2 at Everton and 7-1 at Newcastle.

One clean sheet

Astonishingly, United’s only clean sheet in the league this season came in December’s 1-0 home win over Brentford.

The fewest previously in a Premier League season is three, with the much-discussed Derby team one of four to share that record – they beat Newcastle 1-0, their only win, and had goalless draws with Fulham and Sunderland.

That same 2007-08 season saw Birmingham’s only shut-outs come in beating Bolton 1-0 and Middlesbrough 3-0 and a 0-0 draw with Liverpool.

The 2011-12 season accounts for the other two such teams – Blackburn did not have a clean sheet until March, before finally managing 2-0 wins over Wolves, Sunderland and Norwich, while the Canaries themselves drew 0-0 with Chelsea and beat Bolton and Villa 2-0, the latter on the final day to avoid an outright record.

Curiously, this season also sees multiple teams in the mix with Burnley and Luton currently both on two clean sheets, the Clarets adding a 2-0 win over Fulham to December’s rout of the Blades, while Luton beat Newcastle 1-0 and Brighton 4-0.

By Tom White, PA Sport Data Journalist