Sheffield United arrive at St Mary's on Sunday rock bottom of the Premier League, but is this the worst start ever in the Premier League after 11 games ? You will be surprised and pleased to find out that it is not, read on to find out the answer.

When their team coach pulls up outside St Mary's stadium on Sunday Sheffield United will sit on only a solitary point and know that defeat will cast the adrift at the bottom even further, not just if any of their rivals down there pick up points, but in that with every game they lose it is one less to save themselves.

With any Premier League season, it is hard to state who has had the worse start because tams that have been awful after 6 games can suddenly be right up the table after 10, you can draw the line at so many points it is not an exact science and when does it stop being a start to the season and become an end !

If we take it merely on results then Sheffield United have had the worst start after 11 games, but it is not as close as you may think, they are rivalled by the Manchester City side of 1995/96, who under new manager Alan Ball who had just been poached by the then Maine Road club from Saints under controversial circumstances.

City drew their opening game of that Premier League season and then went the next 8 games without picking up another point, this at the time was a source of great amusement and pleasure for Saints supporters who for a while considered their once hero Ball to be Judas incarnate, having taken the 40 pieces of silver to go to Manchester City who back then were no great shakes and certainly no where near the super club they are now.

City like the Blades now were not being beaten heavily, in many games it had been by only 1 goal as was the case in the 9th game when they lost 1-0 at Old Trafford, back then that was cause for celebration to only lose by that amount.

It was their 10th game of the season they secured their second point a 0-0 home draw with Leeds, thus condemning Sheffield United to now hold the record with the opportunity to extend it.

But actually Sheffield United don't hold the record for the worst start in Premier League history, that honour falls to our friends from the other end of the M27, who in 2009/10 led the bottom of the table from start to finish after a 9 point deduction for going into administration.

I'm sure our friends will argue the toss that the deduction wasn't applied until the final table, so their points total of -2 after 11 games should not be the worse start ever, but the 2 wins and a draw they did amass in their opening 11 games would have still left them rock bottom even if not applied.

They ended the season on 19 points, put even if we add back on the 9 points, that would still have left them 20th out of 20 clubs and 7 points adrift of safety.

The moral of this story is that cheats don't prosper !

But back to Sheffield United, there can be no doubt that they arrive at St Mary's with the worst set of results in Premier League history, they will want to make sure that by the end of the year that they have not only not got the record for the worst start after 16 games, but are in a position to try and stay up.

They know that defeat to us will put another nail in their coffin.

Photo: Action Images

wibbersda added 12:41 - Dec 8 Let's face it SU over performed last season and obviously, everyone has now worked them out.
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A1079 added 12:43 - Dec 8 Despite their position and start to the season I am not prepared to write them off yet. I think they are one result away from kick starting their season and going on a run. We need to be careful of complacency as we are prone to it and I have lost count how many teams supposedly on a bad run, with players missing or players that have not scored who seemingly then come to St Marys and get a result. It won't be pretty and we will need to be prepared to rough it up with them if necessary. They won't take any prisoners. I hope our fans that are present really get behind the team. I suspect having fans back will make our players nervous anyway, so we need to ensure that that does not work against us - though they are diplomatic enough not to say it loud and clear I get the impression that our players have felt more relaxed and enjoyed the football more without the fans. For other teams (like Sheff Utd) having the fans is probably something that they have missed.

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SaintNick added 13:08 - Dec 8 I fear for Sheffield United at the moment they are 9 points adrift of Brighton, but more importantly 6 points adrift of safety, If Burnley win their game in hand then that could be 8 points. They are where they are because they dont score many goals and that wont change, they will win a game or two and pick up points, but of we assume a low safety points total of 34 that still leaves them now with 33 points from 27 games needed now or 1.26 points per game, that is a big ask and if we take away some of the games where they will lose like Man City & Utd away plus Leicester Wolves and Tottenham, then it is more like 33 from 22 and thats is 1.5 points a game, over a season that is 57 points from 38 games they didn't get that last year.

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TimSaint added 14:00 - Dec 8 A1079 - Brighton were on a run of 9 games without a home win last night and that run got extended to 10. Perhaps we are no longer the 'go to' team in other team's hour of need - unless of course you are Man Utd playing at St Marys !! :-)
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Chesham_Saint added 14:09 - Dec 8 I almost feel sorry for that dork of a Sheff Utd fan who had Chris Wilder’s face tattooed on the back of his hand. What a plank (and it must ruin his sex life!).
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EGSaint added 14:43 - Dec 8 Sheff Utd had a good last season based on a miserly defence. In the Premier League that is almost impossible to replicate for newly promoted teams. I cant see them surviving. Going down with Fulham and West Brom.
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underweststand added 19:42 - Dec 8 Ralph always quotes that every game in the Prem. is difficult, and he's quite correct. Despite being bottom Sheffield are not the worse side in the League (except for scoring goals ). I've watched a few of their games and they have had a big element of bad luck. Going back a couple of years , Saints had a terrible record of losing to bottom sides, and not so long ago we dropped 12 points to teams in the drop zone and lost TWICE to Cardiff - who still went down. If we are to consider ourselves a Top 6 side, these sort of matches are MUST WIN games.

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dirk_doone added 08:18 - Dec 9 "Chesham_Saint added 14:09 - Dec 8 I almost feel sorry for that dork of a Sheff Utd fan who had Chris Wilder’s face tattooed on the back of his hand. What a plank (and it must ruin his sex life!)." Not if his girlfriend is wilder at heart than he is.
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