Birmingham’s back-to-back clean sheets meet a QPR side that finally turned draws into a win, while Stoke City travel to Derby after a winning run was checked. Across 16 October and 17 October, there is also a lower-table edge: Watford need to answer a heavy defeat, and Charlton arrive with draws rather than victories. Plenty to pick through.
Burnley v Wolves
Burnley have at least kept the net moving: they scored in all five of their latest league games, with a 4-0 win against Watford followed by a 2-2 draw against Charlton. The catch is obvious enough, with only one clean sheet in that spell and seven conceded.
Wolves bring a different sort of wobble to 16 October. Back-to-back 1-0 wins over Sheffield Utd and West Brom have been followed by defeats to Middlesbrough and Bolton, with four goals conceded across the last two. Burnley’s recent goals meet Wolves’ slipping shut-outs.
16 October
 Burnley |
21 in league · 8 points · 6 points from last 5 |
 Wolves |
10 in league · 14 points · 7 points from last 5 |
Middlesbrough v Cardiff
Middlesbrough’s 3-2 win over Stoke City kept their unbeaten five-game run alive, but it has not been all smooth sailing: two draws sit inside the three wins, and they have conceded nine while scoring 12.
Cardiff arrive off the loudest single result in this pairing, a 5-1 win against Watford. They have also conceded in every one of their last five, so this is not simply second against nineteenth. It is Middlesbrough’s steady scoring against a Cardiff side fresh from a five-goal answer.
17 October
 Middlesbrough |
2 in league · 21 points · 11 points from last 5 |
 Cardiff |
19 in league · 10 points · 7 points from last 5 |
Watford v Charlton
Watford’s latest outing was a harsh one: a 5-1 defeat to Cardiff, leaving them with four losses from five and no draws in that run. The goals against column has taken the damage, with nine conceded across the last two games alone.
Charlton are not arriving with wins, but they have been awkward to put away. Four draws in five include the latest 2-2 against Burnley, after earlier 0-0s against QPR and Portsmouth. Watford’s open games meet Charlton’s habit of hanging around.
17 October
 Watford |
22 in league · 8 points · 3 points from last 5 |
 Charlton |
13 in league · 14 points · 4 points from last 5 |
Millwall v Lincoln
Lincoln’s last result was the bluntest on the card: a 6-0 defeat to West Ham, with no goal scored for the second game running. Their five-match run has no draws at all, just two early wins followed by three defeats.
Millwall are coming from a narrower setback, losing 1-0 to Swansea after beating Preston by the same score. They have mixed two draws, one win and two defeats, and their latest blank connects directly with a Lincoln side also searching for goals again.
17 October
 Millwall |
11 in league · 14 points · 5 points from last 5 |
 Lincoln |
18 in league · 11 points · 6 points from last 5 |
Southampton v Bolton
Southampton have tightened up sharply. The 1-0 win over Norwich made it two consecutive clean-sheet victories after the 1-0 against Portsmouth, and their last five contain four wins with no draws.
Bolton bring more noise. Their 3-1 win over Wolves was part of an 11-goal scoring burst across five games, though nine conceded tells its own story. Southampton’s recent shut-outs are set against Bolton games that have rarely stayed quiet.
17 October
 Southampton |
7 in league · 16 points · 12 points from last 5 |
 Bolton |
14 in league · 13 points · 9 points from last 5 |
Bristol City v Sheffield Utd
Sheffield Utd gave Portsmouth plenty to work with in a 3-2 defeat, three days after beating Lincoln 3-0. Their last five have produced two wins and three losses, with no draw to soften the swings.
Bristol City’s latest was tighter but still empty-handed, a 1-0 defeat to Blackburn. They have scored only three across five and been blanked twice, so Sheffield Utd’s more open run meets a Bristol City side short on goals.
17 October
 Bristol City |
12 in league · 14 points · 4 points from last 5 |
 Sheffield Utd |
15 in league · 12 points · 6 points from last 5 |
West Brom v Blackburn
Blackburn’s 1-0 win over Bristol City was their third victory in five, and they have scored in every game of that stretch. Even the draw with Portsmouth brought two goals, so their attack has kept showing up.
West Brom snapped back with a 2-1 win against Wrexham after successive 1-0 defeats to Wolves and Birmingham. Only two points separate the clubs in the table, but the football contrast is Blackburn’s regular scoring against West Brom’s stop-start finishing.
17 October
 West Brom |
6 in league · 17 points · 7 points from last 5 |
 Blackburn |
9 in league · 15 points · 10 points from last 5 |
Swansea v West Ham
West Ham’s 6-0 win over Lincoln was a thumping reminder of why their unbeaten run matters, even with two draws mixed into the five games. Eighteen goals across that span is not background noise; it is the headline.
Swansea answer with the division’s top spot and four straight wins since losing to Southampton. The latest was a 1-0 win over Millwall, their first clean sheet in this five-game spell. West Ham’s big scoring trip now lands at Swansea.
17 October
 Swansea |
1 in league · 23 points · 12 points from last 5 |
 West Ham |
3 in league · 19 points · 11 points from last 5 |
Wrexham v Preston
Preston’s 4-0 defeat to Birmingham left a heavy mark, and it came after a 1-0 loss to Millwall. They have not scored in the last two and have only three goals across five games, with one draw and four defeats.
Wrexham are also coming in from defeat, but their 2-1 loss to West Brom followed a 1-1 draw with Derby and included another goal. This lower-table meeting is about whether Wrexham’s regular single goals meet Preston’s recent blanks.
17 October
 Wrexham |
17 in league · 11 points · 5 points from last 5 |
 Preston |
24 in league · 4 points · 1 points from last 5 |
Birmingham v QPR
Birmingham’s 4-0 win over Preston added a proper punch to their week: five goals scored and none conceded across consecutive victories. It followed the 1-0 win over West Brom, so this is not just one big result.
QPR changed their own story by beating Derby 4-1 after four straight draws. They are unbeaten across the five, but the win only arrived at the end of that sequence. Equal on points, Birmingham and QPR bring very different routes into this one.
17 October
 Birmingham |
4 in league · 17 points · 10 points from last 5 |
 QPR |
5 in league · 17 points · 7 points from last 5 |
Derby v Stoke City
Stoke City had three straight 2-1 wins before Middlesbrough stopped them in a 3-2 defeat. That latest loss matters because the scoring did not disappear; Stoke still found two against one of the division’s strongest starters.
Derby offer the contrast. They drew 1-1 with Burnley and Wrexham, then lost 4-1 to QPR, leaving them without a win in five. Stoke’s run was checked, Derby’s has not yet lifted, and that gives this fixture its edge.
17 October
 Derby |
23 in league · 6 points · 2 points from last 5 |
 Stoke City |
8 in league · 16 points · 10 points from last 5 |
Norwich v Portsmouth
Norwich’s 1-0 defeat to Southampton made it four losses in a row after their win over Birmingham. Earlier defeats to Middlesbrough and Bolton were high-scoring, but the latest blank adds a different concern.
Portsmouth arrive after a 3-2 win over Sheffield Utd, a result that followed two draws and a narrow loss to Southampton. They have two clean sheets in the five as well as two blanks, so Norwich meet a side with a mixed but sturdier set of recent results.
17 October
 Norwich |
20 in league · 9 points · 3 points from last 5 |
 Portsmouth |
16 in league · 11 points · 8 points from last 5 |
Over to you
Your verdict
Are you more drawn to Birmingham v QPR’s clean-sheet burst meeting a draw-heavy unbeaten run, or Swansea v West Ham’s top-three clash after West Ham’s six-goal win?
