Sheffield United have been relegated from the Premier League following Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Newcastle United.
United have secured just three Premier League victories across the course of the season and have been demoted with three matches remaining.
The club are bottom of the top flight with 16 points from 35 games, meaning they cannot mathematically catch 17th-placed Nottingham Forest on 26 points. Only Derby County (11, 2007-08) and Sunderland (15, 2005-06) have recorded lower points tallies in Premier League history.
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Sheffield United had led 1-0 at St James’ Park following Anel Ahmedhodzic’s fifth-minute opener, but an Alexander Isak double, a Bruno Guimaraes header, a Callum Wilson strike and an own goal from Ben Osborn consigned Chris Wilder’s side to a 25th defeat of the season and ensured they will return to the Championship after one season in the top flight.
Sheffield United’s relegation is contingent on the profit and sustainability points deduction appeals of Everton and Nottingham Forest. Everton have been docked six points (reduced from an initial 10) and then a further two points for two separate PSR breaches, while Forest were deducted four points for one breach. Forest’s appeal was heard on April 24, while Everton are also appealing their second deduction.
A Premier League statement read: “Following their defeat to Newcastle, Sheffield Utd are relegated pending Everton and Nott’m Forest’s points-deduction appeals.”
| Position | Team | Games played | Points | Goal diff. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
16 | 34 | 33 | -12 | |
17 | 34 | 26 | -18 | |
18 | 35 | 25 | -29 | |
19 | 35 | 24 | -32 | |
20 | 35 | 16 | -63 |
Paul Heckingbottom, who guided Sheffield United to promotion last year, was sacked in December after collecting just one win and five points in their opening 14 league matches.
Wilder was appointed on an 18-month contract, but he has been unable to turn around the club’s fortunes — winning just two of the 21 Premier League matches he has managed.
“It stings and it hurts. We have to own it,” Wilder told the BBC. “We have got so much work to do on the training ground. We have got to have a proper pre-season.
“Sheffield United is a really good football club. I think everyone understands that but it’s been a really poor season.”
Wilder had spent five years in charge at Sheffield United, his boyhood club, between 2016 and 2021, taking them from League One to the Premier League after overseeing two promotions in three seasons.
United finished ninth during their first season back in the top flight and had been in the European places before the Covid-19 pandemic halted the 2019-20 season. Wilder departed in March 2021 with United sitting bottom of the Premier League.
United won promotion to the Premier League last year after securing a second-place finish in the Championship with 91 points, while contending with financial problems off the pitch. The club had been relegated from the top-flight in 2021.
GO DEEPER
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(Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
