By Opta Analyst | Created at 2026-10-07 15:42:54 | Updated at 2026-10-07 23:34:51
9 hours ago
Following an extended break for international football, the Championship returns this weekend. After almost three weeks off, here‘s a recap of the need-to-know stats before the action gets back under way.
Goals Galore
There have already been 277 goals scored in the Championship in 2026-27, with this the highest total after eight matchdays of a season since 2012-13 (295).
With 95 games played, the goals-per-game average is 2.92, higher than any full Championship season since the competition rebranded in 2004-05 (the highest for a completed season is 2.74 in 2010-11).
In fact, this is currently the highest goals-per-game average the second tier in England has witnessed since 1966-67 (2.95).
West Ham lead the way in the goalscoring stakes, with 22 goals after eight games. That equals Coventry City’s tally at this stage last season. The previous team before them to score that many goals after eight matches in the Championship was QPR in 2010-11 (22). The only team to score more after eight games in a season than West Ham since the Championship rebrand in 2004-05 were Wolves in 2008-09 (23).
All three of those sides went on to win the league title that season – that’s certainly a good omen for the Hammers.
The Swans are Flying
Swansea City sit top of the Championship table as we return to action following the extended international break. It’s the first time that Swansea have been top of the league this late into a season since October 2019, when they eventually finished sixth and lost in the play-off semis.
Their tally of 17 points is quite low for a league leader after eight games of a season. Across 22 years of the Championship since it rebranded in 2004-05, this is just the eighth occasion that a team have been top of the league with 17 points or fewer, with only one of those teams having a lower points total – Brighton in 2012-13 (16).
Swansea have been winning for the biggest proportion of match time in the Championship this season (44.2%) and will hope to keep their strong form going in order to earn a spot back in the Premier League for the first time since their relegation in 2017-18.
Interestingly, while there are 10 points and 20 places between Swansea and rivals Cardiff City in the real Championship table, Opta’s expected points table places Cardiff a spot above the Swans (7th vs 8th). That suggests Swansea’s current league position is slightly inflated compared to their underlying performances at both ends of the pitch.
There’s no doubt that boss Vitor Matos has turned his side into one of the most intense teams out of possession in the attacking half, though. They rank first in the Championship for possession won in the final third (40) and lead the league rankings for total high turnovers (70) as well as shots (16) and goals (3) from high turnovers too.
Promoted Sides Adjusting Well
The jump from League One to the Championship feels small compared to that of the Championship to the Premier League.
While teams promoted from the Championship have struggled to compete overall in the top flight over recent seasons, the same can’t be said for teams that were promoted from the third tier to the second tier.
Since 2022-23, just one of 12 promoted teams has been relegated back to League One in the first season as a Championship club. That team were Wigan Athletic in 2022-23, and the Latics did have a six-point deduction, but that didn’t end up making a difference.
We’re potentially on course for a fourth successive Championship season without a single promoted side being relegated back to League One.
Last season saw as many as two promoted clubs finish inside the top half of the Championship table – Wrexham in 7th and Birmingham City in 10th – for the first time since 2017-18, and there’s every chance that feat might be achieved again.
Lincoln City (11) and Bolton Wanderers (10) have reached double-figures for points already and sit around mid-table, while Cardiff are just above the relegation zone on seven points. Both Cardiff (7th) and Lincoln (9th) are inside the top 10 for expected points, however.
Broken Burnley
Before this season, Burnley’s last four appearances in the Championship have all ended in automatic promotion at the end of the campaign (2013-14, 2015-16, 2022-23 and 2024-25). The last two of those have seen them accrue 100+ points – the only club to reach a century of points more than once in the second tier in history.
In basic terms, when Burnley have been a Championship club, we’re used to seeing them at the top of the table. But not this time.
The Clarets sit bottom of the table after eight matchdays and are the only team without a win in the Championship. Their tally of four points is their lowest after eight games of a season outside the top flight since 1997-98 in the second tier (also 4), when they ended the season 20th.
This is the worst start by a team relegated from the Premier League a season earlier since Huddersfield Town in 2019-20. Back then, the Terriers took just one point from their first eight games in the Championship and went winless in their first nine.
Burnley will still have to go without a win for seven more games this season to equal the worst winless start by a team promoted from the top flight a year earlier – that record was set by Crystal Palace in 1973-74 (15 games without a win).
Just five teams have been relegated from the Premier League to the third tier in back-to-back seasons, with two of those coming in the previous two Championship campaigns: Swindon in 1994-95, Wolves in 2012-13, Sunderland in 2017-18, Luton in 2024-25 and Leicester in 2025-26. Burnley will be hoping to avoid becoming the sixth.
Standout Stars
Cyle Larin has started the season strongly at Southampton, scoring seven times in just eight appearances to lead the Championship goalscoring charts.
The last players to net more across their first eight appearances within a Championship season were Ivan Toney and Adam Armstrong in 2020-21 (8).
Larin’s form extends back to last season, though. The Canadian striker has scored 13 goals across his last 16 Championship games for Saints (excluding play-offs), with no other player scoring more than 10 in that period.
Finn Azaz (3 goals, 4 assists) and Jarrod Bowen (4 goals, 3 assists) join Larin on a league-high seven goal involvements. Bowen’s last 100 appearances at this level have seen him either score (45) or assist (15) 60 goals, with a goal involvement every 143 minutes.
Bristol City full-back Rio Cardines is the creative star of the season so far. The 20-year-old, on loan from Crystal Palace, tops the rankings for both assists (6) and chances created (31) in the Championship.
Most of those assists (5) came in a five-game sequence between 22 August and 12 September, where he became the first player to assist in five successive Championship appearances since Ross McCormack in October/November 2014.
Two players stand out for the danger they’ve posed from open-play passes and crosses so far this season: West Ham’s Manor Solomon and Cardiff’s Jack Moylan.
Soloman played a significant role in Leeds’ promotion from the Championship to the Premier League in 2024-25, and has tallied the highest expected assists (xA) from open play this season (2.3), just ahead of Moylan (2.1), who joined the Bluebirds from Lincoln this summer.
It’s Moylan’s teammate at Cardiff, Ollie Tanner, who has created the most chances from open play after eight matchdays of the Championship season (17), followed close behind by Azaz (16).
West Brom goalkeeper Max O’Leary has been the standout player between the sticks so far in 2026-27. The 29-year-old has conceded just six goals from opposition shots that have tallied an xGOT of 12.2 – preventing over six goals from being scored with his saves. That overperformance is four higher than any other Championship goalkeeper.
Projecting the Rest of the Season
We can’t summarise the Championship season to this point without taking a glance at the latest projections from the Opta supercomputer.
Swansea may currently be top of the league, but across the latest 10,000 season simulations by the supercomputer, four teams won the league or gained automatic promotion more often than they did (9.2% title, 19.3% top two).
West Ham are the current favourites for the title (26.8%) and automatic promotion (45.3%), just as they were in pre-season when we last checked in on the Opta supercomputer’s projections for 2026-27.
Between West Ham and Swansea in the automatic promotion projections are Wolves (37.7%), Middlesbrough (32.0%) and Southampton (20.2%), who despite being docked four points for the misdemeanours last season, are only seven points off the top of the table with 38 games left in the season, giving them plenty of time to catch up.
At the bottom, there are four clubs who were relegated in over 25% of the supercomputer’s current simulations: Preston North End (58.6%), Watford (35.6%), Cardiff (31.0%) and Derby County (27.8%).
Preston have lost more games than any other team in the Championship so far (6), and are level on points with bottom club Burnley in the table (4). Across 2026, only Watford have won as few points as them (27) among the 18 ever-present clubs.
Watford started the season brightly with a win over Southampton and draws against Wrexham and West Ham, but their paper-thin squad has already started to show, with a long list of injured first-team players (notably in defence) contributing to four losses in five games since. They sit bottom of the expected points table, with their underlying numbers highlighting some worrying shortcomings at both ends of the pitch.
You will notice that Burnley, despite sitting bottom and being the only club without a win, are not in this quartet. The Opta supercomputer is still defiant that the Clarets can turn things around and escape a second successive relegation. They finished inside the bottom three places across 17.1% of the current sims, with seven clubs doing so more often.
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