Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 Sheffield United: The hosts cruise to victory in a hard-fought battle

Pablo Sarabia's first-half header gave Wolves a hard-fought Premier League victory over bottom club Sheffield United at Molineux.

With this result, Gary O'Neill's team will move up to eighth place in the table and will have high hopes of qualifying for Europe next season.

It was far from a typical game for Wolves, with Sarabia's only header on target until Joao Gomez's effort in stoppage time. In this match, a determined opponent sat deep and tried to counterattack by increasing the pace at half-time.

And, if not the result, the look of the Blades' performance will satisfy manager Chris Wilder, who has seen his team carve out some good opportunities.

James McAtee created two of Sheffield United's best chances. However, the on-loan Manchester City midfielder had a modest first-half effort easily saved by Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa, and his second-half effort went just wide of the bottom right corner.

McAtee's cross from the left also gave Rhian Brewster a chance to equalize, but the forward, who had already shot wide from a good position early on, missed the ball past Portuguese goalkeeper Sa. I couldn't do it.

But Wilder would not have been happy to see two players, Vinicius Souza and Jack Robinson, go head-to-head and clash in the first half.

This was an embarrassing moment for the visiting team. They are eight points away from safety, and with each defeat they seem to see their slim chances of survival diminish.

Wolves utilize blunt blades

This will no doubt be remembered as a missed opportunity by the visitors, who will return to Yorkshire wondering why they didn't get at least a share of the spoils. .

Had the chance been given, Sheffield United would have probably deserved just their third league win since Wilder was reappointed as manager in early December.

There are traces of pride in the way they fought back from the heavy defeat at Brighton eight days ago, but the problems in both teams are clear.

No team has scored fewer goals than the Blades this season, but they have also conceded 66 goals, the most at this stage of the top flight since Ipswich Town conceded 74 after 26 games in 1963-64. It becomes.

In contrast, Sarabia's clinical header made Wolves the fastest to reach 40 goals in the top flight since the 1971-72 season.

But O'Neill will be aware his side need to improve if they are to progress when they host Brighton in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday (19:45 ET).