Manchester United travel to Bramall Lane on Saturday, attempting to maintain an impressive recent record against newly promoted sides.
Sheffield United were runners-up in last season’s EFL Championship and Paul Heckingbottom’s side have struggled to adjust to the higher division so far, drawing one and losing seven of their eight outings.
The Reds, meanwhile, are looking for a 10th straight win in Premier League games against teams that went up the season before.
Erik ten Hag’s men have already claimed three points on the road against last season’s second-tier champions, with Bruno Fernandes’s superb volley settling a tight encounter at Burnley last month.
The Dutchman has a 100 per cent record in such fixtures, masterminding six victories out of six from games with Bournemouth, Fulham and Nottingham Forest in 2022/23.
Our two fixtures against Fulham were close affairs, as Alejandro Garnacho’s 93rd-minute winner settled the meeting at Craven Cottage and we came from behind to beat the west Londoners 2-1 at Old Trafford on the last day of the campaign.
Casemiro’s early acrobatic effort was enough to decide the day when we travelled to Bournemouth in May, after the Cherries had been comfortably beaten 3-0 in Manchester last January.
And Nottingham Forest also drew blanks in their two clashes with the Reds, those meetings finishing 3-0 and 2-0 at Old Trafford and The City Ground respectively.
United beat Brentford 3-0 and Norwich City 3-2 in M16 under Ralf Rangnick, meaning you’d have to go back to February 2022 for the last time we failed to beat a newly promoted side in the Premier League.
The Reds drew 0-0 with Watford, three months after we lost 4-1 to the Hornets at Vicarage Road in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s final game in charge.
A win at the weekend would draw us within two of the 12-game sequence United managed under Sir Alex Ferguson between May 2011 and March 2013.
After a goalless draw against Newcastle, the Reds recorded successive victories over Blackpool, Norwich City (x2), Queens Park Rangers (x2), Reading (x2), Southampton (x2), Swansea City (x2) and West Ham United.
The run ended at a dozen when the Hammers held us to a 2-2 draw at Upton Park, five days before Sir Alex’s final title was secured.
Our best string of wins against newly promoted sides in the Premier League era stands at 16, between September 2006 and August 2009.
Birmingham City, Derby County, Hull City, Reading, Sheffield United, Stoke City, Sunderland, Watford and West Bromwich Albion were United’s victims in that run, which culminated with a shock 1-0 defeat at Burnley.