Championship: With fresh faces at the top and big guns struggling is this the most open season ever? | Football News

Something feels different in the Championship air this season.

As some of the major players struggle, an old-school uprising is taking place. The relegated clubs are dawdling, and some other big hitters are labouring.

You have to go down to Ipswich in seventh place for a club that was in the Premier League this decade. Even they were in League One in 2023.

Elsewhere, the other relegated clubs of Leicester City and Southampton are in 12th and 17th, respectively.

Coventry City lead the way. They have been, by some distance, the best team in the league. Their last season in the Premier League was 2001.

Middlesbrough, in second, haven’t been a top-flight club since 2017. Stoke in third? 2018.

Preston are fourth. Their last season in the big league? 1961. Hull are in fifth and haven’t been there since 2017. Millwall, currently sixth, haven’t been in Division One since 1990.

Even as you drop down further, Bristol City, Charlton and Derby are the next-nearest challengers below Ipswich in seventh.

Maybe it is the magic of what Sunderland are doing in the Premier League trickling down. They have made clubs believe again that staying up is possible, and a push towards the play-offs truly worthwhile.

Championship predicted table

Here, then, is how Opta expect the Championship table to look at the end of the season ahead of the resumption this weekend.

Struggling favourites

As we headed into this season, the four favourites were the three relegated clubs in Leicester, Southampton, Ipswich, and last season’s play-off finalists Sheffield United.

From varying degrees of disappointment to disaster, it hasn’t quite worked out for any, yet.

Sheffield United were half an hour from the Premier League last season, as they led Sunderland at Wembley. But they were beaten 2-1 and this campaign has been a miserable one.

Chris Wilder was replaced by Ruben Selles, and he lasted just five defeats before he was ousted. Wilder came back, but has still struggled with a squad very different to the one he left. They currently lie in 22nd in the table.

Southampton brought in Will Still, one of the most promising coaches in Europe, but he lasted just 13 games, after collecting just two wins in that time. They have won both since his departure, but still find themselves in the wrong half of the table.

Leicester City, Premier League winners less than a decade ago, have been largely underwhelming with Marti Cifuentes in charge. They marauded to the title in their last season at this level under Enzo Maresca in 2023/24, but have struggled to adapt as well on this occasion.

Ipswich have, perhaps, reacclimatised the best of the relegated clubs. They lie two points outside the play-offs heading into the weekend. But pre-season expectations had them up around where Coventry are now.

Underperformance elsewhere

Norwich and West Brom are two others who are usually expected to be there or thereabouts.

But for Norwich – title winners in 2019 and 2021 – it has been a nightmare campaign. Liam Manning was sacked after just two wins in 15, and seven defeats on the bounce at Carrow Road. Philippe Clement, the former Rangers boss, has arrived to try and dig them out of the current malaise. They are four points from safety right now.

And West Brom started fairly well under new boss Ryan Mason – in his first permanent senior role – but they have also fallen into mid-table.

Meanwhile, newly-promoted and big-spending Birmingham City and Wrexham were both potentially touted to ‘do an Ipswich’ and blow right through from League One to the Premier League.

Both are improving, but still find themselves in mid-table.

So what does this all mean?

Sky Sports EFL Editor Simeon Gholam:

“Fresh faces, excitement, new stories to be written and etched into a proud old club’s history.

“The 2018/19 season was the last time that no relegated club was promoted straight back to the top flight. And even then it was Aston Villa and Norwich among them, and both had been away from the Premier League for just three years.

“Millwall and Preston will also be hopeful of earning Premier League status for the first time, a club joined by Luton, Brentford, Brighton and Huddersfield in the past decade.

“Ipswich are massively improving and have the squad to continue kicking on and threatening Coventry at the top end of the table, which may give things a slightly more familiar feel. But considering they have spent one season in the top flight since 2002, they are not exactly a ‘yo-yo club’.

“It is still early days, but this season has really further underlined the Championship’s status as the most unpredictable league in the world.”

And what could happen this weekend to shake up the promotion race?

The Championship returns with a Lancashire derby on Friday night, as rivals Preston and Blackburn meet at Deepdale.

North End have started superbly this season. They are fourth in the table and would climb to the heady heights of second with victory. It is still early days, but it would put them on course for at least a first Championship play-off spot since 2009.

Then it’s onto Saturday, where Coventry have hope of extending their lead at the top of the table when they host West Brom live on Sky Sports. Middlesbrough, in second, officially kick off the post-Rob Edwards era with a trip to Oxford in one of the 3pm kick-offs.

Championship fixtures this weekend

Friday

• Preston vs Blackburn (8pm) – live on Sky Sports Football from 7.30pm

Saturday 12.30pms on Sky Sports+

• Bristol City vs Swansea
• Charlton vs Southampton
• Coventry vs West Brom

Saturday 3pms

• Birmingham vs Norwich
• Derby vs Watford
• Ipswich vs Wrexham
• Leicester vs Stoke
• Oxford vs Middlesbrough
• Portsmouth vs Millwall
• QPR vs Hull

Sunday

• Sheffield Wednesday vs Sheffield United (12pm) – live on Sky Sports Football from 11am