John Egan was exceptional as Chris Wilder’s Blades beat Unai Emery’s Gunners at Brammal Lane, Lys Mousset scoring a vital Premier League winner.
Its performances like this that make you wonder what on earth Sunderland were thinking when they released a fresh-faced Irishman by the name of John Egan.
Five years after he was deemed not good enough for a team now languishing in the third tier, Egan is now an established Premier League star for another team in red and white. And his colossal performance during Sheffield United’s hard-fought but totally deserved 1-0 win against Arsenal on Monday night highlighted just how far he has come.
Lys Mousset was the hero at one end but Egan was a rock at the other with three interceptions and seven clearances to his name.
In fact, with the 27-year-old heading and kicking away anything that Arsenal dared to toss into the box, the best compliment you can pay him and Sheffield United as a whole is that a strikeforce of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe and eventually Alexandre Lacazette never really looked like scoring at Bramall Lane.
Sheffield United were comfortable sitting on their one-goal lead right until the end. And, thanks in part to a brilliant display from their man-mountain centre-back, Chris Wilder’s team have a statement result to match their performance.
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