Wilder bullish over upcoming away trips to Manchester City and Liverpool

Chris Wilder insists Sheffield United are determined to continue defying expectations in the Premier League as their away record faces its toughest examination yet.Brighton were dispatched 1-0 at the Amex Stadium on Saturday as the Blades secured a third successive victory, lifting them into fifth place overnight and forcing Wilder to field questions about Europe.The result also equalled the Premier League away record for a newly promoted team of nine games unbeaten.Watford visit Bramall Lane on Boxing Day followed by trips to Manchester City and Liverpool, leaving Wilder defiant even if he knows the size of the task ahead.Seen the fixture list?! Its brilliant for the club but we dont just want us being in the Premier League to be an event. Were here and weve earned the right to get into the division, the United boss said.Before the Brighton game I said to the players its the Premier League, its all going to be tough, but its going to be tough for them as well. And we made it that way.The away record has been fabulous and now its onto Watford on Boxing Day.The Blades are one point off the top four, but Wilder dismisses any discussion of European qualification out of hand.It is ludicrous because the season isnt over after 18 games. Its accumulation of points, on to the next one, can we keep it going? Wilder said.Weve had some decent runs including one defeat in eight or nine, which is good going for a club in the Premier League and one that was written off to be down by Christmas.One of the qualities of the group last season and the year before that is how we recovered from defeat.That was going to be important this year because people talked about us losing two, three, four, five games on the spin and how do you cope with that mentally. Its something we talked about in pre-season.It was a disappointing performance against Newcastle and then weve had three wins on the spin. Thats an indicator of what the group is about.The promising form Brighton have shown recently ended against United but boss Graham Potter views the result as a wake-up call.It didnt take long for the pressure to come about 20 minutes and thats something for us to deal with as a team, Potter said.If we think were just going to turn up at the Amex and start passing through teams at this level, thats a concern because it doesnt happen that easily.And because Sheffield United attack quite direct and down the sides, they overload you and theres a feeling of stress. The challenge for us is to try and find a way through and we didnt.Theyre unbeaten in the Premier League and were not the only team in the league thats found it difficult to play against them at home.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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