Sheffield United will continue to go in search of their first league win of the season when they host newly-promoted Peterborough United on Saturday.
The Blades have made a poor start to life back in the Championship after relegation from the Premier League and sit 23rd in the table, while the Posh are slightly better off in 19th.
Match preview
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Sheffield United went into the international break with just two points from their opening five matches and only one goal to their name – Billy Sharp's late, but ultimately redundant, equaliser in the defeat to Huddersfield Town.
After a 0-0 draw against Luton Town a fortnight ago, manager Slavisa Jokanovic pleaded with the club's board to "refresh the squad" as he looks to turn fortunes around.
The Serbian's appeal was answered, with Conor Hourihane, Morgan Gibbs-White and Robin Olsen all signing on loan in the last two days of the transfer window.
The Blades have lost both of their first two home matches in the Championship to Birmingham City and Huddersfield, but the Bramall Lane crowd will surely be expectant over the next few weeks.
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Something is going to have to give, as Peterborough have lost both of their first two away league matches this season without even finding the back of the net.
The Posh have failed to keep a clean sheet in their opening five games of the season, but came agonisingly close two weeks ago when they lost 1-0 to West Bromwich Albion after Semi Ajayi's 94th-minute winner.
Darren Ferguson described the defeat as "cruel" and said he could only compliment his players' performance, which showed that they will have plenty of fight as they aim to stay up in their first Championship campaign since 2012-13.
Peterborough's sole victory so far this season came against Derby County in gameweek two, but they are now winless in three matches and have not gone four without a victory since January 2020.
These two sides last met in League One in 2016-17, with Sheffield United winning both games 1-0 on their way to the title.
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Team News
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Conor Hourihane and Morgan Gibbs-White are in contention to make their Sheffield United debuts, but Robin Olsen is unlikely to feature as he has been on international duty with Sweden since signing and therefore not trained with his new club.
Sander Berge and Ben Davies are both doubts, having not trained for over a week since testing positive for Covid-19.
David McGoldrick remains sidelined with a calf injury, but George Baldock should be ok to play after being forced off against Luton two weeks ago.
Darren Ferguson has said that Peterborough's deadline day loan signing Conor Coventry "will definitely be involved" at Bramall Lane, despite only training once with his new teammates as he has been away with the Republic of Ireland Under-21s.
The Posh boss also admitted that attacking trio Jonson Clarke-Harris, Jack Marriott and Siriki Dembele were still lacking match sharpness but all were available to feature.
Captain Mark Beevers and teenage striker Ricky-Jade Jones remain sidelined through injury.
Sheffield United possible starting lineup:
Foderingham; Basham, Egan, Robinson; Baldock, Hourihane, Norwood, Fleck, Norrington-Davies; Brewster, Sharp
Peterborough United possible starting lineup:
Pym; Thompson, Kent, Butler; Ward, Coventry, Grant, Burrows; Szmodics; Clarke-Harris, Marriott
We say: Sheffield United 1-0 Peterborough United
Slavisa Jokanovic will have used the international break to regroup and reset after a difficult start to the season and we think this will be the game where Sheffield United finally get their first league win of the campaign. Peterborough showed against West Brom that they will not be pushovers this season, but they could just lose out again.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sheffield United win with a probability of 44.18%. A draw had a probability of 28.2% and a win for Peterborough United had a probability of 27.61%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sheffield United win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.6%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (8.79%) and 2-1 (8.43%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (13.04%), while for a Peterborough United win it was 0-1 (10.08%). The actual scoreline of 6-2 was predicted with a 0% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Sheffield United would win this match.
