Sky Sports EFL pundit David Prutton has suggested that Stoke City’s momentum at the moment should mean they have enough to take all three points against Sheffield United on Saturday.
Sheffield United host Stoke aiming to get themselves back to winning ways after they suffered back-to-back defeats away against Middlesbrough and Bournemouth ahead of the international break.
That saw the Blades lose some of the momentum they had been finally starting to build under Slavisa Jokanovic.
Prior to those two defeats, the Blades had managed to secure three wins from their previous four Championship games. They were showing real signs of improvement from the opening month of the season. Jokanovic will need his players to now show a response to those successive losses at Stoke.
Stoke, meanwhile, head into the contest in a great place with the Potters having picked up an excellent 1-0 win against West Brom last time out before the international break.
That victory saw them end the Baggies’ unbeaten start and shows how much progress they are making this term.
Michael O’Neill’s side will be aiming to keep picking up wins on a regular basis to keep putting the pressure on the teams in and around them in the table.
It is vital that they continue to maintain their level of performances if they are to sustain their promotion push.
Making his latest round of predictions for Sky Sports, Prutton suggested that Stoke seem to be more of a complete side at the moment compared with Sheffield United. Therefore, he believes their momentum will be toom much for the Blades and they will run out 2-1 winners.
He wrote: “Two defeats on the spin just before the international break has somewhat halted the momentum of Slavisa Jokanovic's side. It is still a work in progress at Sheffield United as they transition away from the Chris Wilder era at the club.”
“Stoke are going great guns. They are sitting pretty in the top six and look the more complete side out of these two right now. I fancy them to take all three points from Bramall Lane.”
The verdict
You can see Prutton being right here because Stoke are a side that you would not want to be coming up against at the moment.
The Potters have real momentum this season and O’Neill is finding the right way to get the maximum out of most of his players and that could take them a long way this term.
The way that Stoke saw off West Brom’s unbeaten record last time out was highly impressive and the international break probably came at a bad time considering the momentum that performances and result should have given them.
Sheffield United in contrast arguably needed the international break to get their form back on track after their back-to-back defeats.
The Blades are making some progress and performance levels are improving, but whether those improvements are enough to match Stoke remains to be seen.