5 Championship Tips - 20/8/22

Both Preston and Watford have not endured an exciting start to the season in terms of high goal-scoring games, with neither side being involved in a game with more than two goals, with both sides avoiding defeat in their first four games.

Preston have had a good start to the season defensively, keeping four clean sheets in their four Championship games so far, whilst only scoring once, whilst Watford have scored in every game so far, they haven’t managed more than one goal and have focused on their defensive stability under new manager Rob Edwards, which could see a defensive stalemate at Deepdale.

Two of the surprise teams for opposite reasons are facing each other this weekend, with Hull surprising people after starting very well this season, finding themselves second in the league after winning twice and drawing twice in their four games so far, whilst the pressure is heavily mounting on Steve Bruce at West Brom after drawing three times and losing once in his first four games of the season.

Hull have faced some difficult teams already this season, beating Norwich City, drawing to Burnley and Preston and are coming into this game a lot more confident, especially Oscar Estupinan, who has already scored twice for his new club, whilst the West Brom players will be under a lot of pressure by their fans and could become too desperate for a win this early in the season, which could get them into trouble against a confident Hull side.

Despite being atop of the Championship, Blackburn have had to ride their luck in their four games so far, having the fewest shots per 90 minutes in the league, resulting in the best goal-to-shot ratio in the division, which showed in their last game versus Reading where they suffered a 3-0 defeat.

Sheffield United have looked bright in their league campaign so far under Paul Heckingbottom, but have looked shaky defensively, conceding in every game so far, but have shown promise going forward, especially against Sunderland, albeit having a man advantage for a lot of the game.

After four games this season, both Stoke and Sunderland have had their defensive struggles this season, both having the joint second worst defences, conceding seven goals, but their attacks have kept them from terrible starts to the season, with Sunderland scoring the most goals so far, and Stoke the joint third most.

With two teams that have had frailties defensively whilst still staying in games with good attacking output, this game has the potential to be a really high-scoring and entertaining game.

So far under Vincent Kompany, Burnley have been able to control games through dominating possession, averaging 70% possession through their first four games, but they have struggled to turn their possession dominance into victories after drawing twice and losing once in their last three games, despite having 38 shots to only allowing their opponents a combined 22.

Burnley will likely dominate possession against Blackpool, who averaged the seventh least possession in the league so far, which means they will have to be clinical, which they haven’t been so far this season, having the second worst goal-to-shot ratio this season.