Fixture release day: our analysis

It's that time of year again. Allow us to take you through the season with some of our signature, high-end analysis.

Words: David Taylor

Ah, fixture release day. Better than Christmas morning, a surprise birthday party, or the birth of your second child. The time of year when hungover misery from the previous season begins to wash away, to be replaced by refreshed optimism and a renewed sense of blind hope.

Unfortunately, we’re starting away from home, on a Monday night, at Watford. But never fear! An inauspicious opening fixture does not a poor season make. We’ve pored over the fixture list, looking at each team’s previous league positions, current managers and any potential mini-run opportunities, to work out to the best of our abilities how Sheffield United will fare in the 2022/23 season.

Let us know in the comments how close you think we’ll be to reality, and how you see the season going. We’ll be sure to revisit this next May.

Games 1-6

Sky Sports can’t seem to get enough of us on recent opening days. Only once in the last six seasons have we not had our first match televised, and this year is no different. It’s a doozy of an opener, too, against recently-relegated Watford. While it’s a tough start, it’s perhaps the perfect time to face them: a team reeling from relegation, bereft of identity and with a new manager that might struggle to command respect early on in his tenure. I predict an opening day win.