League Focus: Premier League Core has Helped Hull to Championship Summit
For all the Championship's promise of the unpredictable, the expected names are sitting near the top of the table and those predicted to suffer are finding things difficult. The pair of financially-stable teams relegated from last season's Premier League occupy two of the top three places, but Brighton remain the most notable story on account of their unbeaten run.
Still, a word of warning: for all it looks impressive on paper, the manager, Chris Hughton, has been recently keen to point out that they are yet to have a comfortable game. That's backed up by their inability to win a single match by more than one goal. "We're just glad to be competitive," he said last week, which might initially seem like an odd thing to say for a manager in charge of the country's only unbeaten team across the top four divisions but he certainly had a point.
Only Hull (8) and Derby (11) have better defensive records than Brighton (12) in the Championship this season, but only Cardiff (17) have scored fewer goals in the top half than the Seagulls (21), who have won just three of their past nine league games. With a difficult run of fixtures after the international break - travelling to Burnley and Derby, along with hosting Gary Rowett's playoff place dwelling Birmingham City in their next four - it would not be a wild guess to say the run looks likely to end soon.
Derby suffered their first defeat in 10 at Nottingham Forest last Friday and that must surely only be considered a blip, even if Chris Martin has endured, relatively-speaking, a minor drought, failing to score in his past three having previously netted four from four. Losing to their East Midlands rivals means they have been usurped as the division's form team by Hull, the new leaders thanks to five wins in a row.
Only Fulham (29) have scored more goals than the Tigers (26) and the ruthless fashion in which they put fellow promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough to the sword last Saturday has sent out a big message to those below them. It cannot go unnoticed that they also possess the joint-best defensive record in the country, conceding the same number of goals (8) as Manchester United but with four more games played. They have kept nine clean sheets and conceded only one goal in seven matches.
That shows how big a boost it is to keep hold of the bulk of your Premier League squad and with the financial benefits brought by recently appearing in the top flight, it is becoming increasingly difficult for those who have languished in the Championship a little longer to keep up the pace without the aid of parachute payments.
A by-product of this appears to be that the level of sackings in the second tier is noticeably higher than the other divisions - a third of clubs have now changed manager since Gary Bower left Blackburn Rovers this week, the third to go in a week after Chris Powell at Huddersfield and Fulham's Kit Symons. Indeed the ultra competitiveness and fact that so many teams believe they can form a promotion bid means mid-table is unacceptable in the eyes of owners' and chairmen.
The news of Reading's Thai owners investing millions in the club and town to make it a "second London" might appear deluded but not only is the Championship the richest second division in the world, the overall worth and transfer spend is now rivaling even the top tiers in other major European countries. There is a genuine risk that a gap could develop where a select few will yo-yo between the Premier League and upper-end of the Championship, but remain too strong to be challenged by those immediately below them in the table.
That is why at the bottom it looks quite predictable too, though Preston's recent run of defensive form has been impressive, keeping clean-sheets in all six games since losing 3-1 at Sheffield Wednesday in early October. That has kept them out of immediate danger, but they are still only four points clear of the bottom three and four of those six games were scoreless draws. For them survival will be a success this season, but it appears they will be more and more unlikely to bridge the gap above in the future.
Can Hull secure promotion back to the Premier League this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
