As we head into the final weekend of this Championship season, Benjamin Bloom has crunched the numbers to see what the top six could look like at the final whistle, with odds from Betfair throughout.
WHAT’S UP FOR GRABS
We go into the final round of Championship games not knowing the four sides set for the play-offs, with plenty of permutations regarding places five, six, seven and eight left to pick through.
Here’s what we know already: Fulham are champions and sealed things with an emphatic 7-0 thrashing of Luton on Monday, a result with huge implications further down. Bournemouth won the gigantic head to head with Nottingham Forest to confirm second place on Tuesday. That result also means that Forest and Huddersfield will be third and forth and we’ll find out in which order on Saturday.
Positions five and six are, in the words of Brian Moore, ‘up for grabs now’. The Fulham 7-0 demolition of Luton gave us many storylines including the Cottagers winning the title and Aleksandar Mitrovic breaking the Premier League era goalscoring record for the second tier. But those looking towards the final day would have been fixated on Luton’s goal difference rather than Fulham’s party. Going into the game Luton’s +14 goal difference was level with Sheffield United in sixth, two ahead of Boro in seventh and five ahead of Millwall in eighth.
Luton to beat Reading 1/2 (Betfair)
THE HIGHER GROUND
The Hatters knew any type of defeat would take them down a place in the table below Sheffield United who were equal on points and level on goal difference. Now, 7-0 is obviously never a good scenario, but this huge swing has moved Luton from the front of the queue to the back if goal difference matters at the end of the final round.
The state of play for Saturday is now as follows and it’s very simplistic for the teams occupying the higher ground. If Sheffield United or Luton win their games, they are guaranteed to finish in the play-offs. Luton are at home to…
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