Are Sheffield United and Sunderland ready for Premier League football? | OneFootball

Sheffield United and Sunderland will face each other in the Championship Play-Off Final with both sides aiming to get back into the Premier League for next season.

Dan Ballard’s 122nd minute equaliser against Coventry gave Sunderland a 3-2 aggregate win to progress to Wembley, and the chance to play in England’s top division for the first time since 2017.

Sheffield United’s road to the final was much more straight forward; they saw off Bristol City 6-0 on aggregate winning both legs of the tie 3-0.

For the second year in a row all three promoted sides were relegated from the Premier League so are either side ready for the step up?

Sunderland

This time last year Sunderland had just finished 16th in the Championship just six points above the relegation spots so the upturn in form under French manager Regis Le Bris has been remarkable.

Despite the change in fortunes for Sunderland this season they still face an uphill battle in the final. Sheffield United finished 14 points above them in the league and were in the Premier League just last season.

However, when the sides last met on New Year’s Day goals from Wilson Isidor and Eliezer Mayenda sealed a 2-1 win for the Black Cats.

Sunderland boast a good core of young talent including teenagers Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg as well as 23-year-old former Spurs player Dennis Cirkin. Winning promotion would give them a better chance at keeping these players.

However, the average age of the Sunderland squad is only 23.9 according to Transfermrkt which would make them the second youngest team in the current Premier League.

In the first eleven that started the second-leg against Coventry only Luke O’Nien is aged 30 or above so Sunderland may need to recruit some experience before they are able to compete in the top division.

Sheffield United

Chris Wilder’s side missed out on automatic promotion to the Premier League by ten points as they finished third in the Championship but they still hope to join the other promoted sides, Leeds and Burnley, next season.

The Blades do not have a good record in the Championship Play-Offs, they have competed in it eight times without getting promoted once.

Unlike Sunderland, the United squad has Premier League experience; players such as Chris Basham, Gustavo Hamer and Kieffer Moore all have played at the top level before.

United’s form in the run in for the automatic promotion spots was poor. Losses to Plymouth Argyle, Millwall and Oxford United all but denied them an automatic promotion spot.

They will need to recruit well in the summer and are much more financially stable then they were last time they were promoted to the Premier League but they are better placed than Sunderland to try and compete.