High-flying Sheffield United take on bottom of the league Watford

The Hornets travel to Bramall Lane in search of two successive Premier League wins for the first time this season.

Sheffield United who currently sit in a very high fifth place are coming into this fixture unbeaten in three Premier League games. They beat Brighton last time out with an Oli McBurnie enough to shrug the Seagulls off and take all three points back to Bramall Lane.

Watford pulled off the unthinkable, when they beat Manchester United on Sunday. Ismaila Sarr opened the scoring after a terrible David De Gea mistake with captain Troy Deeney putting the game to bed after converting a spot kick.

Team news

Sheffield United welcome back midfielder John Fleck after he was suspended at the weekend.

They have reported no fresh injuries, with manager Chris Wilder admitting he has several selection headaches.

Watford will be without Abdoulaye Doucoure after he received a fifth booking of the season on Sunday.

The Hornets are assessing several others players but remain without Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck, Jose Holebas, Sebastian Prodl and Daryl Janmaat.

Sheffield United manager, Chris Wilder gave a brief injury update, spoke about the Christmas fixtures and about the threat Watford can pose in their Boxing Day fixture.

“No fresh injury concerns. We’re really healthy. Players have come through a tough afternoon against Brighton.

“The schedule’s similar to previous Christmas’. There’s no easy part but it certainly gets ramped up over Christmas.

“They’ve got a lot of good players. We’re looking at a really difficult task. I thought they were quite unfortunate at Liverpool and got their just rewards for a positive performance against Man United.”

Nigel Pearson says he plans to use the depth of his squad over the Christmas period, starting at Sheffield United on Boxing Day where he needs to replace the suspended Abdoulaye Doucouré.

“Over the next few games we’ll need the squad to contribute as it’s quite a hectic schedule,” said Pearson. “I don’t really want to overthink things like this [missing Doucouré]. When players aren’t available, I don’t waste energy thinking about what we will miss.

“Troy will put pressure on himself as he’s a talisman for us,” said the head coach.

“He’s going to be an important player for us. I think the injury has taken a while to recover from, but I am sure in the next few months he will continue to be an important player. I don’t think it matters who scores – we just need to score more goals.”

Head-to-head

Watford are unbeaten in the last four meetings (W3, D1). The Blades are without a goal in 383 minutes against Watford, last scoring in a 2-0 home Championship win in August 2009. Sheffield United have lost just one of their last five home league games against Watford (W3, D1).