As we approach the final weekend of September, the first six matches of the Sky Bet Championship season have taken place already.
Many storylines have already been written at this early stage, such as Josh Maja’s incredible goalscoring form for league leaders West Brom, or Stoke manager Steven Schumacher being relieved of his duties at such an early stage of the season.
As the seventh round of matches draws closer, we will highlight three of the Championship matches that we think you should be looking out for across the weekend. As always, let us know in the comments your thoughts on our picks and feel free to add any other matches that may have narrowly missed out!
1. Big Afternoon at The Kassam
Twelve months ago, if you had told Oxford United and Burnley fans that they would be playing each other in the second tier, chances are they would have laughed in your face. But Saturday will see Scott Parker’s promotion favourites make the journey south to one of four sides who have won all of their league matches on their own patch this season.
Whilst the overwhelming favourites will be the recent Premier League outfit, it is important to note that their only league defeat of the season did come on the road, and last week saw them only just scrape past newly-promoted Portsmouth in the 94th-minute courtesy of Josh Brownhill. A very interesting spectacle nevertheless, and a huge afternoon for Des Buckingham and Oxford United, welcoming such an ambitious club to The Kassam Stadium.
2. Swans On Form
Perhaps surprisingly, Luke Williams and Swansea City have had a really impressive start to the season in the league, with three wins a draw and two defeats propelling them to 7th in the table, just one point off the early season playoff places. The Swans are unbeaten at Home so far after their opening three matches at The Swansea.com Stadium, and have in fact only conceded one goal.
Making the trip to Wales on Sunday for the match live on Sky Sports are Liam Manning’s Bristol City, who have struggled away from home this campaign, with their most recent outings ending in heavy 3-0 defeats against Blackburn Rovers and Derby County. The Robins have struggled to keep the ball out of their own net, already conceding 12 goals, and they will be in for a tough afternoon on Sunday.
3. Saturday Lunchtime Hillsborough Encounter
There was real hope before the season started that Danny Rohl’s Sheffield Wednesday would kick on this season after narrowly avoiding relegation last season with a positive end to the season. However, The Owls have only secured three points once this season, and go into their 12:3o Saturday kickoff inside the relegation zone.
And it doesn’t get any easier for them, as its league leaders West Brom in town for this weekend’s fixture, who have won five of their six matches so far, conceding just two goals. The Baggies have won all three of their away matches so far, and will look to continue that record as they go to Hillsborough. Expect a fast start from both sets of fans will be up for this fixture in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
So there are our three matches that we have picked out from this weekend’s Sky Bet Championship fixtures to look out for this weekend, all falling at different times so if you wanted to you could keep up with all three! Let us know your score predictions ahead of your team’s fixture down in the comments.
From everyone at The Real EFL, we hope you have an enjoyable and relaxing weekend!