Sheffield United are top of the league at this early stage of the season with most of the teams having played 9 games up to this point.
The Blades have accumulated 20pts, just 1pt more than 2nd place Norwich City. The gap to 3rd place Blackburn Rovers, however, is 5pts.
Paul Heckingbottom is determined to keep these standards as high as they have been. But he knows they will be slight dips in form over the course of the season. The gaffer stated:
“It’s not a fluke now. But we’ve got to keep pushing because everyone will want to beat us. That’s where we are, and that’s fine.
“If we have to chase at some point in the season, again that’s fine because we’ve done that before.
“We’ll just keep going and look for the performances and that consistency.
“We won’t win sometimes, and that’s fine. As long as we know why we haven’t won and we’ve still delivered as good a performance as we can.” [The Star]
United have to travel to Preston North End on Saturday, as they attempt to extend their winning streak to 4 in a row, which would include 3 away victories. The red and white wizards could also achieve another clean sheet which would make it 4 clean sheets in as many games.
It will be a tough game though, Preston are 12th in the league on 12pts, scoring 3 goals and conceding only 2.
Last season the two sides drew 2-2 in both of their meetings with each other. Both of which saw United drop points after conceding in the dying minutes in both games.
It’s fair to say Preston North End have been a side that United have struggled to beat in recent years. The Blades have won just 4 times in the last 12 league meetings.