Sky Sports pundit David Prutton has issued his prediction for West Bromwich Albion’s visit to Sheffield United on Friday night, going for a 1-1 draw.
Both teams have enjoyed tremendous starts to the season, and find themselves head to head in the battle for promotion as we enter Christmas.
Prutton sees them cancelling each other out: “There is a bit of a gap developing between the top two in the Sky Bet Championship and the chasing pack now, so Friday night presents a great opportunity for both of these sides to put some pressure on Norwich and Leeds,” he wrote on the Sky Sports website.
“Sheffield United and West Brom know a defeat will leave them well off the pace, but that won’t stop either side pushing hard for all three points. That being said, I think this will be a draw at Bramall Lane.”
OPINION
A draw does seem to be the most likely outcome for this match. Both Sheffield United and West Brom are very good Championship teams and so it’s distinctly possible that they could just cancel each other out at Bramall Lane. Chris Wilder’s team possess a lot of firepower at this level, and the Baggies backline will be severely tested by Billy Sharp, David McGoldrick and co. You can say the same thing for West Brom, though. They are a tremendous attacking team with one of the finest strike forces in the division. This will likely be a frantic encounter for as long as it lasts, and it could come down to which team copes best with the other team’s attack. Hopefully for the neutrals it will be a real end to end dogfight, but Darren Moore will be expecting his team to come out on top no matter what happens.