This ended as the latest advert for the Premier League in all its frantic, unpredictable glory as added time featured red cards for Rhian Brewster and Vladimir Coufal plus the penalty awarded for Alphonse Areola’s challenge on Oli McBurnie.
Before this was taken, there was more: after a stoppage for treatment to the West Ham goalkeeper, Areola could not continue and so Lukasz Fabianski strolled on to face McBurnie. Cue the attacker stroking the ball in and Sheffield United’s support hitting ecstasy, taunting the travelling fans with: “Who are you, who are you?”
The denouement nearly had a further chapter when West Ham raced upfield and Jarrod Bowen and Anel Ahmedhodzic came together in the home side’s area. Michael Salisbury turned down loud appeals for what would have been the game’s third spot‑kick, David Moyes particularly upset with the referee, as he was later when claiming Areola was fouled before McBurnie’s strike.
The latter’s decisive kick in the 103rd minute of a game that had flared up from the moment, 24 minutes earlier, when James Ward‑Prowse caused delirium among the away fans directly behind Wes Foderingham’s goal by blazing in the penalty that appeared to grab victory and plunge their hosts into deeper gloom.
Danny Ings won the spot-kick with a surge into the area, first breaking a Jack Robinson challenge, then provoking the foul from Gustavo Hamer that caused Salisbury to award it. The No 8 offered scant complaint to the referee – often a sign of culpability – and was lucky not to be sent off, having been booked earlier.
Before this, Ben Brereton Díaz appeared the headline story: on his Premier League debut, in front of his own crowd, there is nothing better than scoring and this is what the forward scored, beating Areola for the equaliser as the break neared. From the left the ball was headed by Auston Trusty on a diagonal into the area for William Osula. He headed, too, at Areola, who pushed the ball out and Brereton Díaz was the hungrier, forcing himself forward to find the visitors’ net.
This answered Maxwel Cornet’s opener which, like Brereton Díaz’s for Sheffield United, was his maiden strike for West Ham, the Ivorian having joined two summers ago. Here, a touch of quality was present – in a flowing buildup that took the ball right to Coufal and in the full‑back’s pass to Ings: the forward, inside the area, unloaded, a ricochet moved the ball to Cornet and he beat Foderingham with aplomb.
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What the Blades certainly do not do well is defend: this was a 50th league goal conceded, which, in their 21st match of the season, places them second in Premier League history, ahead of only Barnsley.
At the start of the second half the Blades, as they did in the same phase of the opening period, dominated. The ball was pinged between Andre Brooks, Hamer, McBurnie and James McAtee in impressive fashion and one sequence featured the latter’s defence splitting pass which put Brereton Díaz through on the right. Here was the chance for a winner but he spooned the ball wide.
That was on the hour and Chris Wilder referenced this by saying Brereton Díaz was tiring right at the juncture when he planned to replace him – which the manager did, with Cameron Archer. If Brereton Díaz, who signed on loan from Villarreal on 5 January until the end of the season, can post any kind of decent return in the Blades’ remaining 17 matches they may have a chance of avoiding the drop.
Even if he does – and the Chile international missed a golden chance after the interval to score a second – the odds are stacked high against what would have to be a greater escape than West Brom’s so-called Great Escape of the 2004‑05 season. At the start of this game Wilder’s men had nine points from 20 matches, the Baggies having been on 11 at the same point of their campaign. Now they are on 10 yet before the late, late show their frustration seemed encapsulated by Brewster scything down Emerson Palmieri. This brought anger from the visitors – Coufal was headed off by McBurnie as he approached the substitute – and Salisbury to the VAR monitor and, on taking a look, the red card was shown and the Blades were a man and a goal down.
After the restart Ings, to Moyes’s despair, spurned an opening to kill the contest off and it proved costly. Coufal, booked for his protestations at the Brewster challenge, received a second yellow for a stamp and then came McBurnie’s leveller. Wilder was told of his side’s point tally being poorer than West Brom’s 19 seasons ago. “All I am focused on is trying to win the next game,” he said.
