Sheffield United v Bristol City: Match preview

Football League World

By Alfie Burns

Published Feb 10, 2021

Bristol City travel to Bramall Lane this week to face Sheffield United in the FA Cup fifth round.

Bristol City travel to Bramall Lane this week to face Sheffield United in the FA Cup fifth round.

Both sides are looking to continue their cup run, which has proved to be a welcome distraction from matters in the league since the turn of the year.

Football League World will be live in South Yorkshire to provide updates throughout the game, but in the meantime we have pieced together a short preview looking ahead to the fixture:

Story so far

Sheffield United remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table, but a decent FA Cup run has contributed to things picking up on all fronts.

Chris Wilder’s side edged past Bristol Rovers in a third round, five-goal thriller, before beating lower league opposition again in the following round in the form of Plymouth Argyle.

That’s teed them up for a meeting with Dean Holden’s side and a chance to complete a Bristol double in the cup.

The Robins progressed thanks to a 2-1 win against Portsmouth in the third round, before beating Millwall convincingly to set them up for a trip to Bramall Lane.

Team news

Wilder has revealed (Sheffield United YouTube) that Enda Stevens and Lys Mousset have returned to training and have a chance of featuring in this tie.

That’s a welcome boost given the injury issues the Blades are juggling right now. They managed to name only six substitutes against Chelsea over the weekend.

As for Holden and Bristol City, they have injury issues of their own with left-back proving to be a problem position. Adrian Mariappa might be forced to continue deputising there, or Zak Vyner could be asked to step out of position.

Elsewhere, Joe Williams and Henri Lansbury are available, alongside Jamie Paterson. However, Chris Martin and Hakeeb Adelakun became the two latest players to be ruled out for the remainder of the season.