Birmingham vs QPR
Friday night football! This isn’t the most sexy of games, with two teams in poor form and desperate for a win to get back on track. Both teams have struggled for goals so far. Expect a tight game.
Birmingham, who started so well have gone off the boil the last couple of games. Bielek, who is such a crucial part of the way Birmingham play, has dropped his form as well, which might explain the defeats. Stansfield continued his hot start adding a third goal in four games on Tuesday.
Player to watch: Jay Stansfield
QPR have also struggled recently, failing to build on the impressive away-win at Boro. They scraped a draw at home to Swansea on Tuesday. Their lack of goals continues to be concerning.
Player to watch: Paul Smyth
Score prediction: Birmingham 1-0 QPR
A match that has potential to be the game of the weekend. Both teams like to play football the right way and have promising young managers that are getting a lot out of their squads.
Ipswich vs Blackburn
Ipswich have been superb so far coming off the back of two massive away-wins. The defence is looking more solid than ever, the attack continues to rack up high numbers of chances created and goals. Hirst will be well up for it against his former club, who barely gave him a kick.
Player to watch: George Hirst
Blackburn have been inconsistent so far, but they are a better team than the table suggests and have been under-achieving their expected XG by almost 6 goals and have missed 20 big chances. Blackburn will create chances tomorrow but the question mark is if they will have the quality to take them.
Player to watch: Sammie Szmodics
Score Prediction: Ipswich 3-2 Blackburn
Leeds vs Watford
Another potential banger. Both teams I believe are better than they position in the league and each team’s form has improved considerably in recent weeks. Both teams rank high for possession with good technical players.
Leeds have come on leaps and bounds defensively the last few weeks, on a run of three clean sheets. Star man Ethan Ampadu has been running games in the midfield. Gnonto is a big loss who is out for this game but Leeds have more than enough attacking depth to cover for him.
Player to watch: Ethan Ampadu
Watford have finally started to freely score goals with seven in their last three games. Young Matheus Martins continued his excellent start with his second goal in three games.
Player to watch: Matheus Martins
Score prediction: Leeds 2-1 Watford
Leicester vs Bristol City
Both teams fresh from winning on Tuesday, more impressively Leicester with away-wins at Norwich and Southampton. Bristol City put away a weakened Plymouth outfit with ease. Both teams in form should be a good game.
Leicester continue to get results much thanks to Hermansen’s heroics vs Norwich. Kasey McAteer is continuing his rich vein of form, making it back-to-back goals.
Player to watch: Kasey McAteer
Bristol City will be full of confidence after smashing Plymouth in mid-week. Pearson, James and King all back at the King Power looking to force an upset.
Player to watch: Matty James
Score Prediction: Leicester 3-1 Bristol City
Middlesborough vs Southampton
Battle of the stinkers. Both teams leaking goals for fun, in torrid form and finding it tough to get going in front of goal in recent weeks. A win here is crucial for both teams as the pressure ramps up on Martin and Carrick.
I’ve got very little positive to say about Boro. They have simply been awful so far – I expected them to maybe do something away at Wednesday but it looked like they were lucky to come away with a point. Carrick is in dire need of a win.
Player to watch: Hayden Hackney
I’ve watched Southampton’s last three performances and have been very unimpressed with each. They are so easy to play against and give up so many opportunities with their kamikaze style of playing out from the back. They’ve looked really short of ideas in attack as well, offering very little.
Player to watch: Che Adams
Score prediction: Middlesborough 1-2 Southampton
Plymouth vs Norwich
Another two teams who suffered mid-week defeats. Plymouth have really struggled for form recently with one win in the last five. Norwich have also dropped off considerably with two defeats in the last three games.
All eyes will be on Bali Mumba as he takes on his former club and I’m rooting for him to score. Plymouth rotated heavily in mid-week so the starting 11 should come in fresh and raring to go. Plymouth need a reaction after getting battered by Bristol City.
Player to watch: Bali Mumba
Norwich are struggling upfront at the moment following long-term injuries of Barnes and Sargent. They are very thin in terms of options there and this is showing with the amount of goals in the last three games dropping considerably. Could be another tough game incoming.
Player to watch: Gabriel Sara
Score prediction: Plymouth 3-0 Norwich
Rotherham vs Preston
Only one winner here surely? Rotherham have been in dire form and look very poor with very few ideas. In contrast, Preston are on a ridiculous winning run and it would be foolish to bet against them.
Rotherham are lacking ideas and attacking threat, racking up a poor 0.39 XG in away defeats to both Huddersfield and Millwall who battered them. Pressure is ramping up on Taylor who needs a result.
Player to watch: Cameron Humphreys
Preston are inevitable at this point. They look so solid defensively and keep finding ways to win games. New signing Osmajic has filled in for the injured Will Keane fantastically so far, bagging the winner vs Birmingham.
Player to watch: Milutin Osmajic
Score prediction: Rotherham 1-2 Preston
Swansea vs Sheffield Wednesday
Much like Boro vs Southampton, another battle of the stinkers. Both teams looking for their first win and, I’m not going to lie, having watched both I’m expecting nothing more than a dire game of football. Both managers look out of their depth so far.
A somewhat improved performance from the Swans as they nearly got the win they crave so much. Josh Ginnely took advantage of a rare start with a goal.
Player to watch: Josh Ginnely
Wednesday also looked better on Tuesday and were unfortunate to not come away with all three points. They still look poor in attack. Ashley Fletcher is not it!
Player to watch: George Byers
Score prediction: Swansea 0-0 Sheffield Wednesday
West Brom vs Millwall
A proper championship low-scoring clash incoming! Both teams poised around where they should be at the mid-table mark. Both teams very inconsistent, especially Brom who are struggling to turn draws into wins.
Brom picked up back-to-back draws in two very even games. It looks inevitable that this one will also result in a draw. John Swift has picked up some good form, picking up another goal mid-week.
Player to watch: John Swift
Millwall picked up an impressive and much needed win with total domination over Rotherham and a much needed tally of goals. Ryan Longman looked impressive yet again causing havoc in that left-wing back role.
Player to watch: Ryan Longman
Score prediction: West Brom 1-1 Millwall
Stoke vs Hull
It’s not going to plan for Stoke who are on a shocking run of form and have plummeted down the table. They somehow failed to beat a manager-less Huddersfield mid-week. Hull on the other hand are on a great run, unbeaten since the opening day and finding results in tough fixtures.
Stoke should have both Vidigal and Mmaee back for this game, which will be huge as they are two of their best attacking players. They badly need a win because more dropped points will ramp up the pressure on Neil.
Player to watch: Andre Vidigal
Hull have been a surprise package so far looking excellent defensively. Were unlucky to draw against Leeds following Traore’s abysmal open goal miss. Still have attacking gears to get to.
Player to watch: Aaron Connelly
Score prediction: Stoke 1-3 Hull
Sunderland vs Cardiff
Another great game on the cards here. Both teams in great form with back-to-back wins for Cardiff and three in a row for Sunderland.
Sunderland have been devastating, convincingly winning three games in a row with 11 goals in just three games. Jack Clarke comes into this game in top form with 3 goals in two games. Sunderland are quickly shooting up the table. They will miss Ekwah.
Player to watch: Jack Clarke
Cardiff have also been a surprise package so far and look a really solid outfit. Their narrow 4-4-2 system will took to frustrate Sunderland. Collins vs Roberts will be a fascinating battle.
Player to watch: Aaron Ramsey
Score prediction: Sunderland 2-2 Cardiff
Coventry vs Huddersfield
A must-win you feel for an under-achieving Coventry as they come up against newly-appointed Darren Moore’s men. Coventry will hope Monday is the night when they work out how to turn draws into wins.
Coventry suffered a surprising defeat away at Cardiff and will be looking to bounce back again. The new big-money strikers are yet to hit the ground running and it is experienced Godden who is firing the goals in for Coventry.
Player to watch: Matt Godden
Moore has a big job on his hands as Huddersfield over-achieved massively under Warnock. It is unlikely he has had the time to integrate much of his style on to the Huddersfield team having just been announced.
Player to watch: Jack Rudoni