2019 was the year of finales, bringing about the end of Star Wars, Game of Thrones and Jose Mourinho’s career as an elite manager. However, 2020 hasn’t quite matched those dramatic endings, but the wrap up to this season’s Championship campaign is about to change all that.
You might have thought that the Premier League was football’s equivalent to Game of Thrones, given the riches, mercenaries and mind games. After all, Tony Pulis had a monstrous horde from the icy north at Stoke long before HBO brought one to our screens.
However, football’s real battleground comes in this pulsating Championship finish. With two games to go, no automatic promotion places or relegation places are decided, while only one side is certain for the playoffs. Unlike Game of Thrones, this is a finale worth watching.
Fight for the title
Leeds are targeting the crown in the Championship, as they look for a long-awaited rise to power. They are just a point away from gaining promotion back to the Premier League after a 16-year wait. That leaves the enigmatic Marcelo Bielsa on the verge of the top-flight.
Bielsa is exactly the kind of character who can thrill in the Premier League, with his attacking style and dugout antics. However, the man they call El Loco is so unpredictable that in 2016 he took the Lazio job only to quit after two days. Hopefully his top-flight stay in England lasts longer.
Leeds have two chances to get promoted before they play next, as a slip for either West Brom or Brentford would send them up. The real focus is on those two sides in the fight for second. Brentford have cut a 10-point gap down to just one with an eight-game winning streak, leaving this fight to go to the wire.
With West Brom wobbling, they could easily gift Brentford second before the end of the campaign. That would mark an incredible rise for the Bees, who have built arguably the strongest side in the Championship this season. They just need to prove that across their final two games.
Remaining Fixtures
Leeds: Derby (A), Charlton (H)
West Brom: Huddersfield (A), QPR (H)
Brentford: Stoke (A), Barnsley (H)
Photo finish in the race for the Playoffs
The fight for sixth has everything a good fantasy tale needs. We’ve got former friends turned enemies, feuding capital cities, bitter rivalries and a battle between Lions and Dragons. A pair of Welsh dragons, that is.
Both Cardiff and Swansea are in the mix for sixth, which brings all the animosity of one of the league’s most heated derbies. One of those two or Millwall will take the final playoff spot, with this weekend key in that race.
Cardiff’s turnaround has come courtesy of Neil Harris, who arrived at the club in November after departing Millwall. He swapped the English capital for the Welsh after Neil Warnock was sacked. Now Cardiff’s top-six place comes down to this weekend’s visit to Middlesbrough, now managed by Warnock.
Meanwhile, Millwall have fought bravely after Gary Rowett replaced Harris. He’s dragged the Lions to seventh on a limited budget, but they need a favour from elsewhere if they are to climb any higher.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest need one point against strugglers Barnsley and Stoke to join Fulham in the playoffs. The Cottagers are viewing this finish alongside us, with their focus now switching to winning the playoffs for a second time in three seasons.
Remaining Fixtures
Cardiff: Middlesbrough (A), Hull (H)
Millwall: QPR (A), Huddersfield (H)
Swansea: Bristol City (H), Reading (A)
Off-field drama plays key role in relegation battle
This is the point where fantasy turns to legal drama. However, it’s much more interesting than it sounds. Wigan are appealing their 12-point deduction for going into administration, a blow which would take them from 13th to 21st if the appeal is rejected. The outcome of that could shape the relegation picture at the foot of the Championship.
It complicates what should be a straightforward finish. This weekend could see bottom club Barnsley – who look doomed with Nottingham Forest and Brentford in their final two – fall seven points off safety with one game to go. However, they’d have a better chance of catching 13th placed Wigan than the club in 21st.
To make it simple, Wigan’s superior goal difference means that if they stay 12 points clear of the bottom three then they are safe. Their fixtures look favourable, which means we have a four-way fight for two spots in League One.
Of those four clubs are some of the most calamitously run sides in the division. Huddersfield have dropped like a stone since Premier League relegation, while Charlton’s campaign has been mired in boardroom drama, leaving an understrength squad who have been reeled in by the bottom three.
However, Hull are in the worst position. They sold their two top scorers in January, while five senior players left on free transfers in June. That’s left a fragile squad who look destined for League One. If the Tigers could salvage themselves from here, that would be a true underdog story.
Remaining Fixtures
Wigan: Charlton (A), Fulham (H)
Huddersfield: West Brom (H), Millwall (A)
Charlton: Wigan (H), Leeds (A)
Hull: Luton (H), Cardiff (A)
Luton: Hull (A), Blackburn (H)
Barnsley: Nottingham Forest (H), Brentford (A)
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