Where does Sheffield United's season rank in the Premier League's worst ever?

On Wednesday night Sheffield United claimed the unwanted record of the most goals conceded in a 38-game Premier League season.

The last of Manchester United's goals in the 4-2 defeat at Old Trafford was the 92nd time the Blades goalkeeper has had to pick the ball out of the net since the season began with a relatively narrow 1-0 loss against Crystal Palace.

Sheffield United could still threaten the record set for goals conceded in a 42-game season.

But just how bad has their season been?

The Blades have won only three of their 34 league games this season and sit bottom of the table on 16 points, with four games to go. They could be relegated as early as this weekend.

Back-to-back defeats conceding four goals, with the Old Trafford game coming on the back of a 4-1 loss to Burnley, have left them on the brink.

But those results are from their heaviest losses of the season.

A 5-0 defeat in their reverse fixture at the Clarets was matched by the same scoreline against each of Aston Villa, Brighton and Arsenal.

The Gunners went one better by beating the Blades 6-0 at Bramall Lane last month.

But even that demoralising scoreline was surpassed by an 8-0 defeat at the hands of Newcastle in September.

Those results make United only the third team in Premier League history to concede at least five goals on six occasions in the same season.

They have lost 24 times this season, meaning they could finish with 28 defeats if they lose their remaining games. That means they will definitely avoid the highest number of defeats in a single Premier League season, which stands at 29 – a record they already share with Ipswich (1994-95), Sunderland (2005-06) and Derby (2007-08). United lost that number in 2020-21.

And the Blades have already avoided the ignominy of finishing a Premier League season with a record low points total – that distinction remains Derby County's 11 points in 2007-08. Derby won just one game that season.

But they could still end up with a worse goal difference than the -69 Derby ended with that season.

It is likely to be a close-run thing – the Blades' current goal difference is -59, an average of -1.73 per game. If that trend continues they would come in just short of Derby's record at -66.

But they could become only the second Premier League team to concede 100 times in a season – their average of 2.71 goals conceded per game has them on course for a record 103. Swindon conceded exactly 100 in 1993-94, when they played four more games than Sheffield United will have completed by the end of this season.

And at less than half a point per game, they need at least four from their remaining four games to avoid becoming the seventh team to finish with fewer than 20 points.

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