The Championship season is a long one, and it’s notorious for being one of the toughest leagues around. The rewards for making it through the 46 game season and the additional playoff encounters, if that is the route a team manages to overcome, are enormous.
A place in the promised land of the Premier League is worth tens of millions, and this season the top two are running away with it. Scott Parker’s Bournemouth went off like a train, and his former club, Fulham, have kept pace with the south-coast side, and the two sides are only separated by a point.
The chasing pack sit some way back, and a betting enthusiast will have to do a fair amount of soul-searching before picking a side to back via squawka.com’s best betting sites. So who might be fighting it out when it comes to the sprint at the end of the marathon that is the Championship season? Let’s take a look at those who might be there, or thereabouts, come May.
West Bromwich Albion
Having been relegated last season, the Baggies were always going to be up among the frontrunners this season. Valerian Ismael has led the Hawthorns side to a solid, if not spectacular, start, and they are a little short of options in the final third (especially when compared to the sides ahead of them).
They’ll need Karlan Grant to bear the lion’s share of the burden up front, but the Midlands side should be among the main contenders for a playoff spot.
Queens Park Rangers
Mark Warburton’s side were not expected to be quite so competitive this season, and it’s good to see the West London side mounting a genuine push for a return to the top flight as they haven’t been all that effective over the course of the seven seasons since they were last relegated to the Championship.
Charlie Austin and Lyndon Dykes will play a key role in what happens next, and you’d feel that one of the two would have to rack up 20 goals plus to really push them in the right direction.
Blackburn Rovers
Another side that has been unable to really push for a Premier League return for a few years, the Ewood Park outfit, are doing well this time around, and that’s down in no small part to the prolific form shown by Chilean international forward Ben Brereton. The Stoke-on-Trent born striker has already bagged 19 goals for club and country this season.
Stoke City
Michael O’Neill’s side has a nice combination of youth and experience, and their recent win at QPR has been a real boost to the Potters. Experienced campaigners like Joe Allen, Steven Fletcher, and Tommy Smith could prove vital as the season enters its busy Christmas period.
Sheffield United
Slavisa Jovanovic’s side is a little way off the pace, but we fancy the Blades to push on in the right direction. They have plenty of talent to draw upon, and a run of three wins on the bounce could be the start of a sequence that should lead United back towards the top end of the table.
There are a number of teams that are riding high but may find it hard to keep up the levels needed to be up among the leading pack four or five months from now. For instance, Coventry City and Millwall might fall away before too long.
As for the top two sides, it’s something of a toss-up as to who may well end up clinching the title but it would appear that both Fulham and Bournemouth are more than equipped to keep themselves clear of the pack.
Scott Parker failed to prevent Fulham from suffering relegation last season though there was little he could do to keep the Craven Cottage side up given the squad he had. As Cherries’ boss, he has shown just what he is capable of.
Dominic Solanke has once again proven he is capable of scoring for fun in the Championship, something he never quite managed at Premier League level, and the squad available to Parker has depth enough to cope with the rigours of a Championship season.
Fulham are similarly blessed when it comes to numbers and Marco Silva has his side playing a nice brand of football that has seen them rack up 50 goals in 21 games while also boasting a tight defence.
Having a proven international striker like Aleksandar Mitrovic leading the line tends to give the West London side a goal headstart over their Championship rivals and there is plenty of quality throughout Silva’s squad.
The race between the two teams may well end up going down to the second fixture between the two sides, which takes place at the Vitality Stadium in late April.
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