After a three-week international break, City return to Sky Bet Championship action as they make their shortest away journey of the season to face Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on Saturday 10 October (3pm KO).
Read the thoughts of both Chris Cohen and Dan Oyegoke as well as all the key stats and information ahead of the Imps’ clash with the blades.
Opposition Information
Chris Wilder’s side currently find themselves 18th in the table, amassing nine points from their opening eight games by registering two wins, three draws and three losses. The Blades find themselves searching for their first win since early September as they have suffered defeat in all of their last three games when facing Wolverhampton Wanderers, Stoke City and most surprisingly, Fleetwood Town in the Carabao Cup, with the Fishermen sitting 48 league positions below Sheffield United.
Throughout the duration of the summer, Wilder brought in seven new faces to the side that managed a 13th place finish last season after a below par start to the campaign under their former manager Ruben Selles. One of those additions was the move to bring back, Manchester City loanee from last season, Kalvin Phillips, who made three appearances in red and white stripes during the previous campaign. The former England international has racked up seven appearances in total this season and scored his first goal for the Blades in their last fixture against Stoke City.
One member of the squad who isn’t new to Sheffield United or the second tier is Patrick Bamford, the veteran attacker is heading into his second season with the Blades. He has made nine appearances, scoring three goals so far in the 2026/27 season which can be added to his 13-goal tally from his previous season in Sheffield. Despite only being S2 for a year, Yorkshire has been his home for a lot longer as he is a member of Leeds United’s 200 club having made 207 appearances and scored 60 goals since joining in July 2018.
Chris Cohen said: "They're a top team with a top manager and great players, they've probably not had the start to the season that they would've wanted but these are the challenges we want, we don't underestimate them at all but as we've said all along, we have to try and implement our game model and stress them as much as we can."
International Imps
Five Imps have been away on international duty during this break, including Ivan Varfolomeev who made his senior debut for Ukraine as well as Andrei Coubiș who added four caps to his tally and Chieo Ogbene who represented the Republic of Ireland three times. As well as the senior players, both Yunus Konak and Oisin Gallagher represented Türkiye and the Republic of Ireland respectively at U21 level.
Oisin helped his side to a historic 3-1 win over England U21 as they secured a play-off place in the U21 Euro Qualification campaign. Chris Cohen spoke on both those who went away with their nations but also how the time has allowed for extra time on the training pitch.
He said: "A few players came in late in the window having been with their respective national teams and they've all earned themselves valuable minutes but it's also given us an opportunity to go back through our principles, an opportunity to train hard but also time for the squad to bond off the pitch by spending some time together.
"So we've tried to use this window in the best way we can but we're all chomping at the bit to get back to the real stuff on Saturday afternoon."
Dan Oyegoke’s Thoughts
Dan Oyegoke has settled into his time with City well, starting with a debut in round three of the Carabao Cup against Bournemouth before making a Sky Bet Championship debut in City's 1-0 win over Preston North End where he was a standout performer and most recently he made a 20-minute appearance against Bristol City and he spoke ahead of the Imps' return to league action as they travel to Bramall Lane to face the Blades.
He said: "I'm buzzing to be back, it feels like it's been so long since the last game and for fans it must feel even longer because at least we've been here working hard, training and preparing but now I'm just excited to ruffle some feathers and flip the script.
"We've got so many games coming up so I'm really excited, ready to go especially know I've got that bit more behind me in terms of an understanding and now I've been here a bit longer, I just can't wait to get going again."
H2H
It has been just three years since these two sides have faced off with one another at Bramall Lane, last time out with was a Carabao Cup round two tie. The full-time whistle blew with neither side managing to find the back of the net, sending the game straight to penalties where it was the Imps who advanced to the third round. The scorers from the spot that evening were Danny Mandroiu, Ethan Hamilton and Lasse Sorensen before John Egan’s penalty was saved by Lukas Jensen.
Trips to Bramall Lane hold historical significance in the history of City with a 4-2 loss to the Blades in September 1892 being the Imps’ first game in the football league. Success in S2 proved a difficult task until May 1983 when City travelled to Yorkshire and came away with all three points in a Division Three clash, a season where they did the double over Sheffield United under Colin Murphy. Glenn Cockerill was the man on the scoresheet that day in the 1-0 success, netting midway through the first half, it was one of his 35 goals for the Imps, stretching over two stints with the club and a total of 186 appearances before joining Sheffield United for the 1984/85 season.
Match information
City will be wearing their gaming-inspired third kit for the trip to South Yorkshire - you can get yours HERE.
The referee will be Josh Smith with help from his assistants Conor Brown and Johnathon Bickerdike with the fourth official for the afternoon being Steven Copeland.
Legendary broadcaster, John Helm, will be joined by Chris Laming to provide the commentary for Imps+ - check out your streaming options HERE.
