Plenty of pundits made predictions about how Sheffield United would do in their first Premier League season in 12 years.
Most weren’t very hopeful for the Blades’ hopes of survival. However, not even the fans would probably have thought they would be sixth in the table after 11 games.
The 3-0 win over Burnley at the weekend took United’s points tally to 16 – one behind Arsenal in fifth. This is all the sweeter after strong criticism from the likes of Garth Crooks, Adrian Durham and Danny Mills.
Yet for the purpose of this we are concentrating on the weekly predictions of Mark Lawrenson and Charlie Nicholas – who represent the BBC and Sky Sports, respectively.
The pair both guess at the results in all ten top flight fixtures. Where they predicted the Blades would be at this stage of the season compared to reality makes for interesting reading.
The “expert” Sheffield United predictions
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Week 1 – Bournemouth v Sheffield United
Lawro: 1-1
Nicholas: 2-1
Actual result: 1-1
Week 2 – Sheffield United v Crystal Palace
Lawro: 2-1
Nicholas: 1-2
Actual result: 1-0
Week 3 – Sheffield United v Leicester City
Lawro: 0-1
Nicholas: 1-2
Actual result: 1-2
Week 4 – Chelsea v Sheffield United
Lawro: 2-0
Nicholas: 3-1
Actual result: 2-2
Week 5 – Sheffield United v Southampton
Lawro: 2-1
Nicholas: 2-2
Actual result: 0-1
Week 6 – Everton v Sheffield United
Lawro: 2-0
Nicholas: 1-0
Actual result: 0-2
Week 7 – Sheffield United v Liverpool
Lawro: 0-2
Nicholas: 1-3
Actual result: 0-1
Week 8 – Watford v Sheffield United
Lawro: 2-1
Nicholas: 2-1
Actual result: 0-0
Week 9 – Sheffield United v Arsenal
Lawro: 0-2
Nicholas: 2-3
Actual result: 1-0
Week 10 – West Ham United v Sheffield United
Lawro: 2-0
Nicholas: 2-1
Actual result: 1-1
Week 11 – Sheffield United v Burnley
Lawro: 1-2
Nicholas: 0-1
Actual result: 3-0
At this stage of the season, Lawrenson has United sitting in 17th position with seven points and only outside of the relegation zone on goal difference.
In fairness his predictions began relatively accurately, but have tailed off badly in recent weeks.
As for Nicholas, he was way off from the start. According to the Soccer Saturday regular, after 11 matches Chris Wilder’s men would be rock bottom with a single point.
Luckily, he appears to know very little about United.