Sheffield United v Aston Villa: Cameron Archer's Villa Park display shows mettle Chris Wilder is looking for in Blades

The 22-year-old will be in a strange position when Unai Emery’s side visit South Yorkshire. He is a Sheffield United striker but The Yorkshire Post understands that under the terms of the deal which brought him from Villa Park, he will return there if the Blades are relegated. With every week that looks more likely, unfortunately.

But whatever the Premier League table says about their team – nine points adrift of safety, potentially more when they kick-off at 5.30pm on Saturday – Sheffield United's players have things to prove between now and May. It was something manager Chris Wilder was looking for in the players he signed in the winter transfer window – Ivo Grbic, Ben Brereton Diaz and Mason Holgate – but should not be hard to find in the squad he already had.

August’s £18m transfer signalled Archer's time to start living up to some of the hype. It was always going to be harder scoring for a team who in all honesty had very little chance of not at least being involved in a relegation battle, but on the back of an excellent second half of last season on loan at Middlesbrough, and 11 Championship goals, he had the wind at his back.

A goal – before the days of dubious goals committees he might have been able to claim two – on his first Premier League outing for the Blades, at Bramall Lane, got the juices flowing, but there have only been two since and post-Christmas it has been start one game, sit out one.

Paul Heckingbottom's No 9 became a wide attacker under Wilder and the powerful Brereton Diaz and skillful James McAtee – on loan from Villarreal and Manchester City respectively – have been showing their qualities of late.

"They have all got to produce and there have been opportunities for Cam – recently at Gillingham,” says an unsympathetic Wilder.

"I’m not a subscriber that he can feel sorry for himself because you can’t. Whether you’re sub, get 10 minutes, half an hour or 70 minutes, there’s a massive opportunity."

And as every football fan knows, playing against a former team can bring something special out of a player. Archer's last goal was at Villa Park and looked for all the world like being an 87th-minute winner until Nicolo Zaniolo decided otherwise in the seventh added minute.

Archer enjoyed himself when he found the net, none of this phoney refusing to celebrate against a former team. Wilder liked that.

"Players get battered when they’re playing against their old clubs if they score," he comments.

"The elation of scoring, after his second-half performance against Villa, I don’t think anyone can begrudge him or criticise his reaction. Some go way over the top – running the length of the pitch and giving it the hands up – but possibly somewhere inbetween is the right place."

It told the manager he has a player with something about him.

"You can’t switch it (desire) on and off,” says Wilder. “You want to do well for your football club, but you want to win. You want that Saturday-night feeling of having won. That’s what you’re in it for and why you’re a competitor in any sport.

"But certainly when you have connections, you’re not here to just slide out the back door."

Importantly, Wilder sees signs that England Under-21 international Archer wants to learn. He ought to – if he can fulfil his potential there are not many English centre-forwards between him and the full squad.

"Cameron is open to work, with myself or the coaches, to try and improve his game in every way – on the training ground, the video analysis room or matchdays," says Wilder.

"We want the group to grow and be better but individually we want to make those players better.

“You need two things – the acceptance that the player wants to learn, as Cam does and all of them do. And also put the time and effort in to improve them, which we certainly do."

He also needs players hungry to be part of a relegation fight – not always a given.

"The ones who don’t, I’m putting their names down and drawing a line straight through it,” says Wilder.

"One player, I didn’t even get a return call back, it came through an agent, which I think says a lot.

"Another wanted to play in a possession-based team, so I said ‘If Man City, Liverpool, Brighton, Villa or any of the top six don’t come in for you then give me a buzz.’."

At the Premier League’s sharp end, the faint-hearted need not apply. Archer’s Villa Park display suggests he is not in that category.

• Ismaila Coulibaly has joined Swedish side AIK on loan until the end of the season.