EFL Championship predictions and predicted lineups: 18 games in four days, Swansea top and Preston still on zero
Eleven games on Saturday, one on Sunday and six more on Tuesday night. West Ham, Wolves, Burnley and Southampton are all down here now, Swansea lead, Preston have lost four out of four. Predicted lineups and our read on every single game.
The Championship does something no other league in Europe does: it plays eighteen matches in four days. Eleven on Saturday, one on Sunday, and then six more on Tuesday night, because the second tier squeezes a midweek round in while everyone else rests.
And this season the division is full of names that were in the Premier League a moment ago: West Ham, Wolves, Burnley and Southampton.
Who leads, and who has not started
Top of the table is Swansea City: four games, three wins and a draw, ten points, seven scored and one conceded. Behind them Charlton Athletic have won all three of theirs, and Wolves sit third on seven points from four.
At the other end, Preston North End have lost four out of four and have yet to take a point — and they open the whole round at home on Saturday morning.
The scoring charts are shared by two men on four goals each: Will Lankshear of Middlesbrough and Cyle Larin of Southampton. Both play on Saturday, and we have calls on both games.
Saturday: eleven games
It opens at 11:30 with three at once. Preston vs Blackburn (fewer than 4.5 goals), Stoke vs Charlton (fewer than 4.5), and Lincoln City vs Southampton, where the joint top scorer visits (at least two goals).
At 14:00 there are seven. West Ham vs Derby is the one the neutrals will look for (at least two goals). Alongside it: QPR vs Middlesbrough (at least two), Millwall vs Bolton (fewer than 4.5), West Brom vs Watford (fewer than 4.5), Portsmouth vs Cardiff (at least two), Burnley vs Bristol City (fewer than 4.5) and Sheffield United vs Norwich, where we say Sheffield United to score at least once.
Saturday closes at 19:00 with the pick of the round: Swansea vs Wrexham, top of the table against the club everyone in the world now knows. Fewer than 4.5 goals.
Sunday
One game, and it is a proper one: Birmingham vs Wolves at 11:00, with Birmingham on six points and Wolves on seven. Fewer than 4.5 goals.
Tuesday night: six more
Three days later they go again. Southampton vs Swansea is the heavyweight (Southampton to score at least once), and Wrexham vs Burnley the one with the noise (at least two goals).
Then Cardiff vs Stoke (fewer than 4.5), Blackburn vs Sheffield United (fewer than 3.5), Watford vs Preston (fewer than 4.5) and Bolton vs West Ham (at least two goals).
Nine clubs play twice inside four days. That is the thing about this division, and it is usually where the table starts to lie.
The predicted lineups, game by game
Preston North End - Blackburn Rovers
Preston North End (3-4-2-1)
Daniel Iversen, Harry Clarke, Liam Lindsay, Lewis Gibson, Stanley Mills, Leo Leroy, Jordan Thompson, Caleb Wiley, Alfie Devine, Delano Burgzorg, Jusef Erabi
Blackburn Rovers (4-2-3-1)
Aynsley Pears, Ryan Alebiosu, Lucas Houghton, Sean McLoughlin, Yuri Ribeiro, Sam Morsy, Kristi Montgomery, Ryoya Morishita, Todd Cantwell, Oladapo Afolayan, Andri Guðjohnsen
Stoke City - Charlton Athletic
Stoke City (3-4-2-1)
Viktor Johansson, Ben Wilmot, Bosun Lawal, Luke Graham, Ben Johnson, Ben Pearson, Ethan Galbraith, Eric Bocat, Sam Gallagher, Jun-Ho Bae, George Hirst
Charlton Athletic (4-2-3-1)
Arthur Okonkwo, Danny McNamara, Lloyd Jones, Tyler Bindon, Amari'i Bell, Conor Coventry, Timothy Ouma, Millenic Alli, Sonny Carey, Tyreece Campbell, Miles Leaburn
Lincoln City - Southampton
Lincoln City (3-4-3)
George Wickens, Deji Elerewe, Ryley Towler, Callum Elder, Dom Jefferies, Tom Bayliss, Conor McGrandles, Adam Reach, Robert Street, Freddie Draper, Reeco Hackett-Fairchild
Southampton (4-2-3-1)
Daniel Peretz, James Bree, Nathan Wood, Keven Schlotterbeck, Ryan Manning, Flynn Downes, Cameron Bragg, Tom Fellows, Finn Azaz, Leo Scienza, Cyle Larin
Queens Park Rangers - Middlesbrough
Queens Park Rangers (4-4-2)
Pierce Charles, Amadou Salif Mbengue, Jimmy Dunne, Ronnie Edwards, Tariq Lamptey, Harvey Vale, Nicolas Madsen, Glen Kamara, Ilias Chair, Richard Kone, Rumarn Burrell
Middlesbrough (4-2-3-1)
Radek Vitek, Callum Brittain, Alfie Jones, Luke Ayling, Neto Borges, Sebastian Berhalter, Adilson Malanda, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Aidan Morris, Kyle Joseph, Will Lankshear
West Ham United - Derby County
West Ham United (4-4-1-1)
Mads Hermansen, Kyle Walker-Peters, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Max Kilman, Oliver Scarles, Jarrod Bowen, Arne Engels, Divine Mukasa, Manor Solomon, Joël Piroe, Pablo Felipe
Derby County (4-2-3-1)
Jacob Widell Zetterström, Sondre Langås, Dion Sanderson, Craig Forsyth, Charlie Taylor, Oscar Fraulo, Alex Mowatt, Ryan Hedges, Bobby Clark, Rhian Brewster, Sammie Szmodics
Millwall - Bolton Wanderers
Millwall (3-1-4-2)
Max Crocombe, Caleb Taylor, Jake Cooper, Elkan Baggott, Jenson Metcalfe, Mark Sykes, Derek Mazou-Sacko, Daniel Kelly, Zak Sturge, Lyndon Dykes, Camiel Neghli
Bolton Wanderers (4-2-3-1)
Jack Bonham, Lewis Brunt, Chris Forino, Ben Davies, Akin Famewo, Josh Sheehan, Xavier Simons, Samuel Iling Junior, Rúben Rodrigues, Thierry Gale, Sam Dalby
West Bromwich Albion - Watford
West Bromwich Albion (4-4-1-1)
Max O'Leary, Nolan Galves, Nathaniel Phillips, George Campbell, Callum Styles, Kareem Tunde, Jayson Molumby, Ousmane Diakité, Isaac Price, Felix Horn Myhre, Jimmy Morgan
Watford (4-2-3-1)
Federico Ravaglia, Branimir Mlačić, Matthew Pollock, Kévin Keben Biakolo, Jordan Zemura, Edo Kayembe, Hector Kyprianou, Othmane Maamma, Iker Bravo, Amin Nabizada, Mamadou Doumbia
Portsmouth - Cardiff City
Portsmouth (4-2-3-1)
Daniel Bielica, Terry Devlin, Benjamin Arthur, Madiodio Dia, Zak Swanson, Marlon Pack, Ebou Adams, Abu Kamara, Adrian Segečić, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, Marko Milovanović
Cardiff City (4-2-3-1)
Nathan Trott, Perry Ng, Joel Bagan, Gabriel Osho, Calum Scanlon, Alex Robertson, Cian Ashford, Ollie Tanner, Rubin Colwill, Jack Moylan, Yousef Salech
Burnley - Bristol City
Burnley (4-2-3-1)
Max Weiss, Oliver Sonne, Anel Ahmedhodžić, Hjalmar Ekdal, Connor Roberts, Hannibal Mejbri, Ugo Raghouber, Andreas Hountondji, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Dastan Satpaev, Zeki Amdouni
Bristol City (4-2-3-1)
Sam Tickle, Noah Eile, Rob Dickie, Lisav Naif Eissat, Rio Cardines, Jason Knight, Adam Randell, Yu Hirakawa, Scott Twine, Sam Greenwood, Lorent Tolaj
Sheffield United - Norwich City
Sheffield United (4-4-2)
Michael Cooper, Hamza Choudhury, Japhet Tanganga, Mark McGuinness, Sam McCallum, Romelle Donovan, Jaïro Riedewald, Sydie Peck, Ben Brereton Díaz, Patrick Bamford, Tyrese Campbell
Norwich City (4-2-3-1)
Vladan Kovačević, Jack Stacey, Ruairi McConville, José Córdoba, Darlin Yongwa, Kenny McLean, Pelle Mattsson, Andre Brooks, Anis Ben Slimane, Oscar Schwartau, Mohamed Touré
Swansea City - Wrexham
Swansea City (4-3-3)
Lawrence Vigouroux, Josh Key, Filip Lissah, Stephen Welsh, Josh Tymon, Elijah Just, Marko Stamenić, Stephen Eustaquio, Joseph Opoku, Adam Idah, Ji-sung Eom
Wrexham (3-4-2-1)
Anthony Patterson, Max Cleworth, Dominic Hyam, Callum Doyle, Issa Kaboré, Matty James, Ben Whiteman, Jacques Ekomié, Josh Windass, Lewis O'Brien, Kieffer Moore
Birmingham City - Wolverhampton
Birmingham City (4-2-3-1)
James Beadle, Bright Osayi-Samuel, Phil Neumann, Christoph Klarer, Alex Cochrane, Tomoki Iwata, Jhon Solís, Patrick Roberts, Jay Stansfield, Carlos Vicente, August Priske
Wolverhampton (4-2-3-1)
José Sá, Jackson Tchatchoua, Nasser Djiga, Toti Gomes, Hugo Bueno, Marshall Munetsi, André, Rodrigo Gomes, Fer López, Mateus Mané, Raúl Jiménez
These are the twelve games of the weekend round. The Tuesday lineups are not out yet and we add them in an update. Predicted lineups can change until an hour before kick-off.
The individual calls
Sixteen of them across the round. The two on Will Lankshear at QPR are the ones we like most: he is joint top scorer and starts.
Then Zian Flemming twice at Burnley, Adrian Segečić at Portsmouth, Isaac Price for West Brom, Camiel Neghli at Millwall, Léo Scienza for Southampton at Lincoln, Mateus Mané for Wolves, and on fouls Bobby Clark, José Córdoba, Matthew Pollock, Conor Coventry, Lewis O'Brien and Oliver Rathbone.
Every one of them appears in his side's predicted eleven.
Then we count them
When the round closes we publish the tally with nothing removed: how many calls we had online and how many landed. The full record of every settled call is in the results history.
Our analysis stays updated until kick-off on the Championship page, and the individual calls are in the Player Predictions section.
