Year after year, the Championship proves it’s one of the toughest competitions throughout the whole of Europe. Teams who get relegated from the top flight are not guaranteed automatic promotion; there have been previous times in the past where teams who got relegated from the Premier League were then relegated down into League 1. It’s a dog eat dog world in this league and that’s purely because of the prestigious awards at the end of the tunnel- the Premier League.

Automatic promotion

Currently, as it stands, we have two teams that will most definitely get automatic promotion- Newcastle sitting second, 6 points top of Reading who sit third and Brighton who are holding the top spot. The question is however, who will claim the title? Now this is a tough one because both Newcastle and Brighton keep yo-yoing  between each other since the start of the season- one minute Newcastle are top the next thing you know, its Brighton. At the moment, Brighton who are on 54 points hold a two point lead and a game in hand on Newcastle who are on 52 points respectively. So as it stands you will think Brighton have the advantage and should take this momentum towards the latter part of the season and win the league? Yes, it’s likely this could happen, but I still believe that Newcastle will go on and win the Championship title; I think they have the best squad in the league and have a formidable striker that is Dwight Gayle, who can’t seem to stop scoring the goals at the moment. For me I think it will be Newcastle top and Brighton coming in as runners up, nonetheless both should get automatic promotion.    

Playoffs

Now this is more difficult to predict, I believe the teams currently in the playoff picture most likely will stay the same, however there are some talented clubs gunning behind them. Reading and Huddersfield are a dead cert in regards to cementing their place in the play offs, but I feel Huddersfield will leap frog Reading and finish 3rd and Reading finishing 4th. Leeds should have enough to stay in the middle of those four teams, it’s just a question of; can former runners up of the playoffs Sheffield Wednesday maintain there spot among the 4? If it were to end like this, then I think Huddersfield will end up winning the playoffs and gaining promotion to the Premier League.  

Dark horses

Like previously mentioned above, there are a few teams trailing close behind in search for that promotion, my dark horses are Derby 7th (40 points), Fulham 10th (36 points) and Aston Villa 12th (35 points). I like the look of these three teams- especially Fulham and I wouldn’t be surprised if one them creep into the playoff picture. Villa are now looking good under Steve Bruce and are  now above their neighbours Birmingham, whilst Fulham have this rawness about their game and hold an impressive away record; Derby are inches behind Wednesday and contain a rather impressive squad