Sheffield United 2-2 West Ham United (Jan 21, 2024) Game Analysis

Sheffield United substitute Oliver McBurnie scored a penalty deep in stoppage time to give his side a 2-2 Premier League home draw with sixth-placed West Ham United on Sunday in a game that saw both sides have a man sent off late on.

McBurnie’s strike in the 103rd minute is the latest on record in the Premier League, and it was nothing less than his struggling side deserved after a spirited display.

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The Yorkshire club have 10 points from 21 games and are seven points adrift of the safety zone, while West Ham have 35 and are eight points outside the top four.

The hosts started brightly, but their shoddy finishing was punished when Maxwel Cornet pounced on a deflected Danny Ings shot and fired the ball into the net first-time in the 28th minute.

Playing his first league game since arriving on loan from Villareal on Jan. 5, Ben Brereton Diaz got Sheffield back in the game just before the break after West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola’s parried save from a William Osula header was thumped home by the England-born Chile international.

The home side looked to be on course for their 16th league defeat of the season when West Ham’s James Ward-Prowse scored from the spot in the 79th minute after Ings was upended by Gustavo Hamer.

Their chances of staging any sort of a comeback looked to be over when substitute Rhian Brewster was shown a straight red card for a strong challenge.

However, there was one final twist as West Ham defender Vladimír Coufal picked up his second yellow for what looked an innocuous challenge in the 97th minute.

From the resulting free kick, Areola injured himself while fouling McBurnie in the box, and the striker stepped up to slam the ball past substitute goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski to snatch a well-earned point.