The state of the new Championship season has been unpredictable, with many of the pre-season favourites struggling to pick up points, whilst the newly promoted sides are continuing last seasons good form. With four games of the season gone so far, the Championship table looks very different to what people expected at this stage, with the big teams, such as Ipswich, Birmingham, Leeds and Leicester all having disappointing starts.
Over the past few seasons the newly promoted sides have managed to continue their good form and challenge for promotion, with players and supporters using the previous seasons momentum. The perfect example of this is Norwich, who finished 2nd in the table behind QPR, in their first season back in the Championship after relegation. Last season, Leeds just missed out on the play-offs on the final day and the season before, League One champions, Leicester reached the play-offs only to lose on penalties in the semi final. The recent performances from the promoted teams would have given Southampton, Brighton and Peterborough confidence that they can maintain a successful promotion push.
The League One champions Brighton, have experienced a fantastic start to their first season back in the Championship since 2006 with an unbeaten record so far. It could of been even better if they didn’t let a two goal lead slip at home to promotion rivals Blackpool. There most impressive display of the season so far came in midweek against Cardiff City where they won 3-1, which is a very impressive result as the welsh side had already beaten league favourites West Ham, in their own back garden. The Brighton manager, Gus Poyet would be happy with his squad, with new signings Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Buckley both starting their career with the south coast side with goals. To make the season start even more exciting for the Brighton fans, they have finally moved into their new home, the AMEX Stadium.
The League One runners up Southampton, who made it out of the league at the second attempt, find themselves joint leaders of the Championship at this early stage. Nigel Atkins side have won every game so far with some impressive displays both at home and away, especially in midweek at big spending Ipswich Town, where they scored five goals away from home, which is an achievement. The saints biggest strength is their attack, with a selection of good quality attacking players to choose from each week, such as Rickie Lambert, David Connolly, Adam Lallana and Lee Barnard. Southampton’s 100% record will be tested at their next match, which is an away trip to the unpredictable Leicester City.
The third and final newly promoted team Peterborough, who gained promotion via the play-offs, have also enjoyed a confident start to the new season. With an opening day win at home against Crystal Palace, they followed it up with two good away performances at Blackpool and Millwall, where they only managed to pick up one point in the two games.
Although in the last home game against Ipswich Town, where they went behind to a great Keith Andrews strike, they ended up scoring seven goals in a commanding 7-1 victory. The shows they are continuing their form from last season, where London Road was the ground to go, if you wanted to see goals. Darren Ferguson’s men have began the season better than their previous visits to the Championship and have looked to have learnt from those experiences.
So can the three promoted sides continue this great run at the start of the season? Why not, they are full of confidence and it is showing in their performances. All three sides have shown they are capable of scoring with 30 goals between them. On Saturday, Brighton host Peterborough and provides a great opportunity to find out which side is confident in a serious promotion push this season. The longer the three teams carry the momentum from the previous seasons campaigns, then the more chance they have of emulating the achievement of Norwich from last season.
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It’s a ashame this article is riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes, as well as errors in player names! (I think you mean Rickie Lambert)
paul lambert for saints?