Football Betting

Championship Promotion

Some say that the Championship is brilliant because any team can win it. Others argue that the unpredictability just proves how rubbish everyone is. Neither of those people are right, but even so, Derby's Premier League performance last season did very little to enhance the Championship's reputation. Here's why Wolves and Ipswich may be the newest lambs to the slaughter:

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» Last season none of the three relegated teams - Sheffield United, Charlton and Watford - gained promotion. Watford were the only of the three to make the play-offs.

» In the past two seasons, and four of the last six, the team that has finished bottom in the Premier League has fared best out of the relegated clubs - will Derby keep the run going?

» Unfortunately for Reading, the last time the team who finished 18th in the Premier League fared best of the relegated team or won the league was in 2001-02 when Manchester City bounced back.

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» There is a clear decline in the number of relegated teams going back up as champions. Only one team in the last six years (Sunderland 06-07) have won the league the year after relegation but in the six years prior to that four teams managed it.

» It's impossible to tell how losing play-off finalists Bristol City will fare. Of the last five final losers, two went up the next season (West Brom as champions, West Ham as play-off winners), one lost a play-off semi (Preston), one came eighth (Sheffield United) and one got relegated (Leeds).

» chickendinner superfact: Just missing out the top six often proves to be a good thing. Over the past five years Norwich, Wigan, Reading, Sheffield United and now Stoke have all gone up automatically a year after finishing seventh or eighth. Watch out for Wolves and Ipswich.

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» Promotion favourites QPR have their work cut out. They haven't finished higher than ninth in the division since relegation from the Premier League in 1995-96.

» Birmingham are the closest team to QPR in the betting but have not won this division since 1954-55. The Blues have gone up five times since then but on each occasion it has either been by finishing second, third or winning the play-offs.

» Not since the 1999-00 season has a team achieved back-to-back promotions to the Premier League, so it should be safe to write off Swansea, Nottingham Forest and Doncaster.

24/07/08

Championship Promotion, best odds