LONDON, September 24 — The Championship reached the end of its opening eight-game block on 23 September 2026, and BBC Sport’s Alex Hoad assessed what the first 37 days of the 46-game season had revealed. The league then entered a near three-week break for international football. The table was unusually tight.
Just seven points separated the top 15 sides after eight games, although Wolves and Portsmouth had yet to play their game in hand, postponed because of Carabao Cup clashes. Swansea led the way, with QPR, Stoke, Bristol City and Charlton in the chasing pack, while West Brom had swapped the bottom five of the previous season for the top five.
At its heart, the story of the early table is one of precedent. Since the Championship adopted its current name in 2004, only once had a team topped the table after eight matches with fewer than the 17 points Swansea had earned: Brighton in 2012, on 16 points, who finished fourth and lost in the play-offs. Six other sides had led on 17 points at that stage, but only two of them — Leeds in 2019-20 and Sheffield United in 2022-23 — went on to win promotion.
Three of the other four failed to finish in the top 10.
Goals up sharply
Goals were up sharply. A total of 277 had been scored, 36 more than at the same stage the previous season despite one fewer match played, and the second most at that point since the Championship rebrand in 2004-05. The data pointed to more direct play and quality on the flanks.
Only once in the past nine seasons had more goals come from crosses than the 47 recorded so far, and 44 of those 47 were headers, the most at that stage in five seasons. Nine goals had come from throw-ins, the second most at that stage in 14 seasons behind the previous season’s 12 — a marked shift given that from 2013-14 to 2020-21 just 14 goals in total, an average of fewer than two, had come from throw-ins by this point.
Bristol City’s on-loan Crystal Palace full-back Rio Cardines had six assists, the most by any player in Europe’s top leagues. At the bottom, Burnley were without a win under Nicky Hayen, appointed 29 days before the first game, with four points from eight matches.
No side had ever been promoted from the Championship after failing to win any of their opening eight fixtures, and of the past 10 such cases only Brentford in 2018 finished in the top half; seven avoided relegation, including Portsmouth two years earlier and Sheffield Wednesday the season before. Preston, Cardiff and Derby were the only other sides averaging fewer than a point per game.
In the scoring charts, Southampton’s Cyle Larin, 31, had seven goals in eight games at an average of one every 85 minutes, having made his move from Mallorca permanent after eight goals in 16 loan appearances; his form helped Saints recover from a four-point penalty following ‘Spygate’. Middlesbrough’s Will Lankshear, 21, signed from Tottenham, was one behind, and Norwich’s Mo Toure had five goals from 11 shots, one every 91 minutes. What unfolded over those first 37 days leaves the division finely balanced as the international break interrupts the campaign.
For those involved, the weeks that follow will test whether Swansea’s early lead holds, whether the chasing pack can close a gap measured in single points, and whether Burnley can find a first win before the season’s shape hardens.
