No excuses for Sheffield United as Man Utd display sets benchmark ahead of Arsenal trip

Sheffield United’s display in defeat to Manchester United last weekend has set the standard that the Blades must now live up to in their quest for Premier League survival, according to skipper Ollie Norwood ahead of this weekend’s trip to Arsenal.

The Blades were forced into a change of formation, starting with a rare back four after losing three key centre-halves to injury in a matter of weeks, but a spirited performance had them on course for a morale-boosting point before Deigo Dalot’s stunning winner 13 minutes from time sentenced them to an eighth defeat in nine league games to date.

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A trip to the Emirates, to face a reinvigorated Arsenal side under Mikel Arteta hoping to end their long wait for a Premier League trophy, is less than ideal, then, as the Blades look to kickstart their season and relieve some of the pressure on their under-fire boss Paul Heckingbottom.

Key to doing that will be retaining the intensity that they displayed against Erik ten Hag’s expensively-assembled stars. “We’ve got to build on that performance,” said Norwood. “We’ve got to build on the way we played. It was a different formation and I thought we played really well as a group. We’ve got to take it forward now and look to pick up points as quick as we can.

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“I thought we stuck to the game plan really well. We played forward, we played with intensity and it was a proper performance. We can take heart from it and look to move forward but that’s got to be this the level of performance now going forward.”

Dalot’s superb strike was the latest instance of United dropping points inside the last 20 minutes – and if games ended after 70 minutes this season they would be seven points better off, and 16^th in the table.

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“That’s the difference in the league; it’s ruthless,” added Norwood on the quality of the defender’s top-corner finish. “We’ve seen that already. The level’s totally different to what we’ve played at for the last two seasons in the Championship.

“We’re trying our best to compete, we’re trying everything we can and giving everything. That’s all we can do. There are no excuses; we’ve got to work harder and keep producing as close to that performance as we can. That’s got to be the standard level now.”