Something feels different in the atmosphere of this season’s championship.
As some of the major players struggle, an old-fashioned rebellion is brewing. The relegated club is hanging around and other heavy hitters are also struggling.
The club, which has been in the Premier League for the last 10 years, will have to go to seventh-placed Ipswich. They were in League One in 2023.
Ipswich have the best record of the relegated clubs this season, but remain in seventh place.
Other relegated clubs, Leicester City and Southampton, are in 12th and 17th place respectively.
Coventry City take the lead. They were the best team in the league, by some margin. The last season they played in the Premier League was in 2001.
Second-placed Middlesbrough have not been a top-flight club since 2017. Will Stoke be third? 2018.
Preston placed 4th. Their last season in the big leagues? 1961. Hull finished fifth and hasn’t competed since 2017. Millwall, currently sixth in the table, have not been in Division One since 1990.
Even further down the table, the next closest challengers behind seventh-placed Ipswich are Bristol City, Charlton and Derby.
Perhaps it’s the magic of what Sunderland are doing in the Premier League trickling down. They have made the club believe once again that staying is possible and that progress towards the play-offs is truly worth it.
Struggling favorites
Heading into this season, the four favorites were relegated clubs Leicester, Southampton and Ipswich, and last season’s play-off finalists Sheffield United.
To varying degrees, from disappointment to disaster, none of them have yet worked out.
Sheffield United were 30 minutes out of the Premier League last season as they led Sunderland at Wembley. However, they lost 2-1, making their season a disaster.
Chris Wilder was replaced by Ruben Seles, but he resigned after losing just five games. Wilder is back, but still struggling with a much different team than the one he left. They currently sit in 22nd place in the standings.
Southampton brought in one of Europe’s most promising coaches, Will Still, but he lasted just 13 games, winning just two games. They have won both since he left but still find themselves in the wrong half of the table.
Leicester City, who won the Premier League less than 10 years ago, have hardly been underwhelming under manager Marti Cifuentes. They plundered the title in their last season at this level under coach Enzo Maresca in 2023/24, but have struggled to adapt to this occasion as well.
Ipswich have probably settled back into being the best of the relegated clubs. They enter the weekend just two points out of the playoff spot. However, pre-season predictions predicted Coventry’s current situation.
Poor performance elsewhere
Norwich City are also in the bottom three
Norwich and West Brom are two others who would normally be expected to be around there.
But it has been a nightmare campaign for Norwich, who won titles in 2019 and 2021. Liam Manning was sacked after winning just 2-7 in 15 games on the bounce at Carrow Road. Former Rangers manager Philippe Clement has arrived to try and rescue the team from their current slump. Currently, there are only four points left in the safe zone.
And although West Brom have made a fairly good start under new manager Ryan Mason, who is in his first permanent senior role, they have fallen to mid-table.
Meanwhile, newly-promoted, big-spending sides Birmingham City and Wrexham were both touted as potentially ‘doing Ipswich’, and rocketed from League One to the Premier League.
Both have improved but are still in the middle of the table.
So what does this mean?
Sky Sports EFL Editor Simeon Gollum:
Fresh faces, excitement, new stories to be written and etched into the history of this proud old club.
The 2018/19 season was the last season in which relegated clubs were unable to gain direct promotion to the top flight. And that included Aston Villa and Norwich, both of whom were just three years removed from the Premier League.
Millwall and Preston are also hoping to become the first clubs to achieve Premier League status, joining Luton, Brentford, Brighton and Huddersfield in the past decade.
Ipswich have improved significantly and things may start to feel a little more familiar as the team continues to perform well and threaten leaders Coventry. However, they are not exactly a “yo-yo club” considering they have spent one season in the top flight since 2002.
Although it’s still early days, this season has further underlined the Championship’s status as the world’s most unpredictable league. ”
Is the current championship table accurately reflected?
Sky Sports’ prediction table takes into account performance at both ends of the pitch based on expected goals, and results can look very different from the actual standings.
Coventry and Sheffield Wednesday, at opposite ends of the table, are the only teams unperturbed.
Ipswich move into runners-up status, while Blackburn, who were previously the worst-placed, have moved up 14 places into the play-offs, with Birmingham (+8) and Southampton (+11) also moving into the top six.
At the other end of the table, Derby have fallen 13 places into the relegation zone, while Hull have emerged as the league’s biggest performer, dropping 16 places to sit just two points behind the bottom three.
Could something happen this weekend that could shake up the promotion race?
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Sky Sports Essential EFL Podcast looks at Preston vs Blackburn
The Championship returns in the Lancashire derby as rivals Preston and Blackburn take on each other at Deepdale on Friday night.
North End have made a great start to the season. They sit in fourth place in the standings, and a win would move them up to second place. It’s still early days, but they should be on track to at least qualify for the championship playoffs for the first time since 2009.
Now moving on to Saturday, Coventry will be hoping to extend their lead at the top of the table when they host West Brom live on Sky Sports. Second-placed Middlesbrough will officially begin the post-Rob Edwards era with a trip to Oxford either side with a 3pm kick-off.
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Sky Sports Essential EFL Podcast looks at Coventry vs West Brom
Friday
Preston vs Blackburn (8pm) – Live on Sky Sports Football from 7.30pm
Saturday 12:30pm, Sky Sports+
Bristol City vs Swansea Charlton vs Southampton Coventry vs West Brom
Saturday 3pm
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
What will the championship table look like in the end?
Ahead of this weekend’s restart, here’s what Opta expects the Championship table to look like at the end of the season.
But there’s plenty of soccer to play until then. In other words, similar expectations are placed on surprise challengers and those who struggle…
