Football Bet of the Day: Blades target clean sheet in Wales

As usual with our Football Bet of the Day for a Saturday, I’m ignoring the Premier League, which is difficult to find value in, and venturing down to the Championship. England’s second tier is becoming slightly more predictable and now we are approaching the halfway point of the season, we have a good chunk of data to base our selections upon. 

Below I’ve picked out a Football Bet of the Day from Cardiff City vs Sheffield United, as we search for another winner this Saturday.

I’m focusing on Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United outfit this weekend as they head down to the Welsh capital to face Cardiff. The Bluebirds looked like they had picked up once Omer Riza had taken the reins on a temporary basis, but now he has the job until the end of the campaign, they have slipped back towards the bottom three.

Cardiff sit just one point and one place above the dreaded dotted line, and relegation is now a real worry for a club who haven’t played in the third tier since 2003. A lack of quality is a concern now for Cardiff, who have picked up three draws from their last three away matches. But their form at the Cardiff City Stadium is a real issue, and they’ve lost three in a row there, to Blackburn, QPR and Preston. 

Rovers aside, they are teams that have also been struggling this term, so welcoming league leaders Sheffield United on Saturday is quite a daunting prospect. The Blades have been the best team in the league so far, and would be five points clear at the top had they not had two points deducted before a ball was kicked. As it is, they sit three points above a fancied Leeds United outfit and are on a fine run of form. 

Cardiff City vs Sheffield United Odds

They are now 10 games without defeat, and are yet to lose at Bramall Lane. They’ve only lost two games all season - and one of those came at Elland Road - so we can feel pretty confident that they are going to get three points in this game. I also think it is worth heaping praise on a defence that has carried them to the summit. 

Only Burnley’s version of AC Milan’s back four of the 1990s has conceded fewer goals than the 11 United have let in over 21 matches this term, which means they are conceding one goal on average, every 1.9 games. Anel Ahmedhodzic, Alfie Gilchrist and Harry Souttar have all been exceptionally good, while Michael Cooper has been a star in goal since joining from Plymouth Argyle. That unit is so tough to beat that clean sheets are a mere formality at home.

Although goalscoring hasn’t been too much of an issue for the Bluebirds this season, I think there is a massive disparity between these two squads and as a result, I think we will see a pretty one-sided encounter in the Welsh capital, ending in another three points for Sheffield United. 

Kieffer Moore, Gustavo Hamer, Vinicius Souza and Callum O’Hare are all top-class Championship players, and they should be able to assert their dominance in Cardiff. Sheffield United to win to nil at 23/10 is our Football Bet of the Day for Saturday, December 21.