Chris Wilder rues Chelsea ‘dagger’ to Sheffield United’s survival hopes

It was a good performance from Wilder’s side, who pushed the Blues hard but lost 2-1 in the Premier League at Bramall Lane.

Having got themselves back into the game through an Antonio Rudiger own goal, they were behind again three minutes later.

The crucial incident came much sooner, Aaron Ramsdale bringing Timo Werner down as they chased a poor Kean Bryan backpass. After playing on, then consulting the VAR monitor, referee Kevin Friend gave a penalty Jorginho scored.

“It was a dagger but they’re big boys and they came back,” said Wilder.

“We naively made some not-great decisions.

“We have to be so close to our perfection to give ourselves a chance and it’s a really disappointing moment when we worked so hard to get back on level terms and make it a really interesting last 30 minutes.

“It knocked them back but not for long, but we just didn’t find that critical moment of quality.

“I felt we were really in the game, even when we were 1-0 and 2-1 down. The attitude was excellent again right up against it in terms of what we’ve got available and the opposition we were up against.”

Chelsea’s opening goal came from Mason Mount.

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