In a 2-2 draw with Chelsea, Oli McBurnie’s stoppage-time equaliser saved a point for Sheffield United, as Mauricio Pochettino’s team lost the opportunity to close the gap on Manchester United to three points.
Before McBurnie scored in the closing seconds to save a point, Noni Madueke’s second-half goal—his first league goal of 2024—seemed to be sending Chelsea to another victory following their historic comeback over Manchester United.
After Sheffield United was caught napping, Thiago Silva gave Chelsea the early advantage from a corner. Jayden Bogle then levelled after 30 minutes thanks to a mistake by Dorde Petrovic. From then on, the hosts controlled the game until Madueke’s goal.
Sheffield United had more than enough opportunities to win the game, thus a point is insufficient. With seven games remaining, they are still nine points from safety and are firmly planted at the bottom of the table.
Chelsea, on the other hand, retreat two steps after seeming to turn the corner in their previous match at Stamford Bridge. If their opponents had been more effective in the latter stages, they might have suffered the same fate. Sixth place is five points away for Pochettino’s team.
When asked to explain the draws with Burnley and Sheffield United before defeating United, Pochettino replied, “It’s about being able to compete.” We are finding it difficult to compete in these kinds of games [against weaker opponents] for several reasons.”
Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino: “If we analyse after the game then a draw was fair for both teams. In the Premier League you need to try to play well and also control games.
“All the teams in the Premier League are good. Today we conceded in the last few minutes. We feel really bad in the way we conceded but we need to keep moving.
“We need to be more clinical. The team is scoring a lot of goals but we are conceding too much. We need to find this balance. At the moment we can’t get the right balance of scoring goals and conceding less. We are struggling in this thing and it is something we need to improve if we want to be in a different position in the table.”
Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder:
“I think it was a deserved result. Second half was really good, but I am disappointed in the first goal as we all look at set plays up and down the country and we all know how important they are – it is disappointing to get done again.
“First 15 minutes I didn’t like our performance, after that I liked our performance – full of personality.
“I would have been devastated if we didn’t get a result out of that game.
“I am looking at our individual team performance, we were really good against some big players and collectively we were the better team.
“We have talked about it after the Liverpool game and we went deep into that game. We had two good performances against Fulham and Bournemouth, we deserved a better points return.
“We all know the intensity of the division and we move onto Brentford next week – belief will hopefully be good, they have shown a lot of qualities.
“There is a load of games left and we approach the next game as the most important and see if we can go get a result.
“The performance of the players ignited the crowd and the crowd lifted the players when it was needed.”
Sheffield United will visit Brentford on Saturday in their return to Premier League play.
On April 15, Chelsea will make a comeback when they play Everton on Monday Night Football in the Premier League.
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