Sheffield United: Are Blades the Premier League's best newcomers?

Oliver McBurnie is Sheffield United's joint-top scorer this season with six goals

Chris Wilder's Sheffield United have wowed the Premier League on their return to the English top flight this season.

The Blades sit eighth and are still in the hunt for a Europa League spot.

With two games to go, they have already surpassed their best Premier League points total and are on course for their best top-flight league finish for 45 years.

But how do Wilder's outfit compare to previous newly promoted high-flyers in the competition?

Win their final two fixtures, at home against Everton on Monday and at Southampton on Sunday, and Sheffield United will finish on an impressive 60 points.

It would make them the fifth-best Premier League newcomers in terms of points per game (1.58) and the promoted side to achieve the most overall points in almost 20 years.

So who has bettered the Blades' points total in the past?

Newcastle '94 & Forest '95

Andy Cole scored 34 goals for Newcastle in the 1993-94 season

You have to go back to the mid-'90s to find the best of the promoted bunch, with Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest storming to third-place finishes in successive seasons.

They also had the advantage of a 42-game season to clock up more points.

1993-94: Newcastle United: 3rd (77 points, 1.83 ppg)

Kevin Keegan's Newcastle came third in 1993-94 with a league-high 82 goals, 34 of those scored by Andy Cole, who won the Golden Boot as Peter Beardsley chipped in with 21 of his own.

Newcastle finished 15 points adrift of champions Manchester United and seven behind runners-up Blackburn Rovers, but an entertaining debut season in the Premier League earned Keegan's side a Uefa Cup spot.

1994-95: Nottingham Forest: 3rd (77 points, 1.83 ppg)

The following season, it was new boys Nottingham Forest's turn to set the top flight alight. Forest, and legendary boss Brian Clough, had been relegated in the inaugural Premier League season but returned at the first attempt and for a spell looked like mounting an unlikely title challenge.

After a mid-season blip, they recovered to go unbeaten in their final 12 games of the season and finish third behind champions Blackburn and Manchester United.

Stan Collymore netted 22 times in a prolific strike partnership with Bryan Roy, while captain Stuart Pearce and goalkeeper Mark Crossley provided a solid base for boss Frank Clark.

Blackburn Rovers '93

1992-93: Blackburn: 4th (71 points, 1.69 ppg)

Alan Shearer signed for Blackburn for a British record £3.6m when they were promoted in 1992

Cash-rich Blackburn Rovers were promoted just in time to compete in English football's glitzy new Premier League and, with British record signing Alan Shearer up top, finished fourth in their first season.

Shearer scored 16 goals despite only playing half the year because of a cruciate knee ligament injury. Without him, Rovers' title hopes drifted and they missed out on a Uefa Cup spot by one point.

Bankrolled by Jack Walker, with Kenny Dalglish in charge and with Shearer firing once more, Blackburn did get their title two years later.

Ipswich Town 2001

2000-01: Ipswich 5th (66 points, 1.74 ppg)

Ipswich Town's return to the Premier League was quite remarkable. The Tractor Boys were in the hunt for Champions League qualification before slipping back to fifth, only four points behind runners-up Arsenal.

Marcus Stewart top-scored for George Burley's side while at the other end goalkeeper Richard Wright's performances earned him a transfer to Arsenal that summer.

Sunderland 2000

Kevin Phillips was the most prolific goalscorer in Europe in the 1999-2000 season

1999-00: Sunderland: 7th (58 points, 1.53 ppg)

Sunderland boss Peter Reid paired Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn together in the ultimate little and large striker partnership.

Phillips bagged 30 goals to win the Golden Boot and the European Golden Shoe as the Mackems, having stormed to the Division One title with 105 points the previous season, continued their form in the top flight to finish a very credible seventh.

Best of the rest...

Sheffield United need three points from their final two games to match Wolves' tally of 57 points last season, although that might not be enough to equal their seventh-placed finish.

The Blades are also one point off the 55-point mark set by Reading when they finished eighth in 2006-07 and West Ham in 2005-06, when they came ninth.

Should results go the Blades' way in the final week of the season and they qualify for Europe next season, they would be only the fifth side to do so since 1992-93 after Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, Ipswich Town and Wolves.