EFL Championship: Coventry City dominant as USMNT strikers feature

In all of English sport there are few traditions quite as beloved as Boxing Day at the football, and while the Premier League has largely absented itself from the festivities, the English Football League is at its gluttonous best. All 24 teams in the EFL Championship will be in action on Boxing Day and Paramount+, CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network will be the best places to keep across all of the action on December 26.

Few leagues move quite as fast as the Championship, which will reach its halfway point in the next round of fixtures. Given the speed with which a club can go from crisis to the cusp of something special, you would be forgiven for having lost track of events in the second tier, if you ever could keep it in the first place. So here’s a swift catch up on some of the biggest stories in the division.

1. Coventry look Premier League-bound

It’s the Championship and crazy things happen. Even so, there is frequently a team that separates themselves from the masses and romps towards the top flight. It is hard to see how that won’t be Coventry City, even amid their mini-wobble of a win, two draws and a defeat over their last four league games. Their 48 points are enough for a six point cushion over second placed Middlesbrough, and more significantly have them 11 clear of the playoff places. You have to go down to the fifth tier National League before you find a team who have scored more than the Championship leaders. Their goal difference is also the best in the top four divisions and there is nothing fluky to that; from the Premier League down to League Two only Arsenal have a better non-penalty expected goal difference (npxGD) per game than the Sky Blues.

That they were probably second best to both Southampton and Ipswich Town has to come with the caveat that they are two of the relatively few teams in this division who have had at least a year of recent access to Premier League money with which to build their squad and earn parachute payments. Indeed, there was plenty to admire in the draw at Southampton given that Coventry spent nearly half the game a man down, the fighting spirit of the squad extending either side of the 90 minutes in which they held on to a 1-1 draw. A bout of flu had robbed Lampard of his regular central defensive pairing while some ferocious chanting from the St. Mary’s crowd set the scene for a brawl at the final whistle.

Coventry will hope to avoid such drama on Boxing Day, where they face a Swansea side only just beginning to extricate themselves from the relegation scrap. Ipswich and Birmingham follow soon after but if those were to be safely negotiated then Lampard’s men would be well set for a return to the Premier League. That is something they have been on the cusp of for several years now, downed in the 2023 playoff final and flying up the table last season only to be edged out by Sunderland at the death in a dramatic semifinal.

This seems to be a team hell bent on avoiding the lottery of the playoffs, one that has built on the legacy of past years and gained momentum since Lampard’s appointment in November 2024. “A lot of us have been together for three years now,” defender Joel Latibeaudiere told BBC CWR at the weekend. “We’ve been knocking on the door a long time. The gaffer has come in and hit the ground running… I think we are where are because of the group and how hard we run, how hard we work for each other. He reminds of that every day in training, and as long as we keep sticking together like we are, the sky’s the limit.”

Right now that sky is looking bluer than ever.

2. Norwich lead list of faltering contenders

The fear for many neutrals heading into this Championship season was that, much like in 2024-25, several of the teams who had come down from the Premiership might simply yo-yo back up. That could still happen. Ipswich have built up a head of steam after a slow start, while Southampton are moving back towards the playoffsunder Tonda Eckert after the bizarre run of finishing that cost Will Still his job. Leicester are the great unknown, arguably the most talented squad in the league but riven by turmoil off the pitch in recent years and with a points deduction for profit and sustainability breaches. They’re not playing like it yet under the struggling Marti Cifuentes, but if you were picturing a player pool capable of going on a big winning run in this division, it might be the one at the King Power Stadium.

Norwich didn’t figure as highly as the relegated sides among the top six contenders. It had been three seasons since they dropped out of the Premier League and they had lost talent such as Borja Sainz and Callum Doyle, but they still had Josh Sargent. Sporting director Ben Knapper had had license to invest in a squad that was given over to a serious Championship manager in Liam Manning, back to his hometown after taking Bristol City to sixth. Norwich figured to be there or thereabouts, right?

Instead this season proved to be an unqualified disaster. Manning went in November and not before time, the Canaries having won only one more point than sanction-striken Sheffield Wednesday, who were effectively down even before their second six point penalty at the start of the month. This was a team that could not stop giving quality shots to their opponents and who were plagued by conversion issues at the other end. The appointment of Philippe Clement has stemmed the bleeding in results terms and, though it won’t ease the pressure on him, some of Knapper’s signings have come good, most notably midfielder Pelle Mattsson and goalkeeper Vladan Kovacevic, who has saved both of the penalties he has faced this season.

It’s not necessarily a great sign though when a team towards the bottom of the table can count their goalkeeper among their better performers. Norwich still look vulnerable defensively and the worry for them is that the other teams with similar xG profiles to them have accrued a lot of points. Norwich rank 22rd in the Championship with an npxGD of -8.87. They have 18 points. Wrexham, who are directly below them on the npxGD table, have 28. Hull City have got 37 points and sit fourth in the table that really matters. Perhaps Charlton, Swansea and Wrexham can be drawn into the mix while Oxford, who sacked manager Gary Rowett on Tuesday, and Portsmouth are not playing so well that they can back themselves to get to safety. Whatever happens to those around them, however, Norwich will be in an almighty pickle if they don’t get their own house in order.

Viewing information: Boxing Day games

All times U.S./Eastern

• Birmingham City vs. Derby County, 7:30 a.m. ➡️ Paramount+
• Millwall vs. Ipswich Town, 8 a.m. ➡️ Paramount+
• Coventry City vs. Swansea City, 10 a.m. ➡️ Paramount+
• Leicester City vs. Watford, 10 a.m. ➡️ Paramount+
• Middlesbrough vs. Blackburn Rovers, 10 a.m. ➡️ Paramount+
• Norwich City vs. Charlton Athletic, 10 a.m. ➡️ Paramount+
• Oxford United vs. Southampton, 10 a.m. ➡️ Paramount+
• Stoke City vs. Preston North End, 10 a.m. ➡️ Paramount+, CBS Sports Network
• West Bromwich Albion vs. Bristol City, 10 a.m. ➡️ Paramount+
• Wrexham vs. Sheffield United, 12:30 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+

3. A proper playoff race is brewing

Between the promotion favorites and those scrambling for survival is, well, so little that you could throw a blanket over most of the Championship. Blackburn Rovers find themselves moored in 20th with justified grumbling aimed in the direction of their ownership, but it is worth noting that only 12 points separate them from Ipswich in third. It doesn’t take much for any side to find itself flying this way and that around the division. 

Take Charlton, who at the end of October we were profiling amid their unlikely swing at the playoff places. A run of five defeats in a row and they have some looking over their shoulder to do from 17th place. Meanwhile Sheffield United have extricated themselves from a relegation scrap and might even be entitled to believe they could take a swing at the top six.

After all there are quite a few teams in the upper reaches of the division who don’t necessarily profile as likely to stay there; not just the aforementioned Hull, but also Preston North End and to a lesser extent Millwall. Meanwhile Birmingham City create plenty of scoring chances for themselves and do not seem to want for talent, but have been miserable on their travels, so bad that questions over the future of head coach Chris Davies are growing. They are one of those teams whose pressure to quickly reach the Premier League comes as much from the demand for content as it does sporting ambitions, though the planned 60,000 seater stadium does suggest a leadership in for the long haul.

The owners of Wrexham, a point off Birmingham and seven from sixth, have shown themselves to have a long term vision, but if their streaming service has an end point it has to involve promotion to the Premier League. Might they be inclined to spend big once more if they can see a pathway to the playoffs?

The fascination of the Championship is that is a question that could be asked of most of the league right now. There looks to be two teams of an obviously higher level in Birmingham and Ipswich, but, as the season approaches the turn, the rest are nothing but a well-timed run away from Wembley.

4. Wright, Sargent and others vie for World Cup spots

The Championship has proven to be a tempting destination for American players over recent years, perhaps drawn by the sense that they are only one good year away from being able to ply their trade in club football’s most competitive league, as clubs themselves appreciate the diligence and technical quality of their American imports. Aidan Morris looks to have been one of the biggest winners of life in the second tier and if he returns to fitness and form in January he can hope to figure prominently in Mauricio Pochettino’s thinking.

More intriguing is the battle for a spot among the forward pool at next summer’s World Cup. After all, six of the 10 Americans to play in the Championship this season are attackers, and there is the potential for at least one place to emerge behind Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi. For now it seems Haji Wright’s to lose, the Coventry City striker prized for his adaptability at the international level and scoring with regularity for his club.

It is hard to see a path emerging for Daryl Dike and Damion Downs while their minutes remain so limited and Charlie Kelman, last capped for the US Under-20s in 2019, has only scored twice for Charlton this season. There remain two others who might find themselves in the mix though. Patrick Agyemang has shown the sort of form lately for Derby County that vindicates the $10 million they paid for him in the summer. Since the end of November he has begun to average the sort of shot and goal output that will surely catch Pochettino’s eye; given his form for the USMNT in 2025 he must surely be in the mix for at least a spot in the squad for the March friendlies.

That leaves the man who probably ended the last World Cup cycle confident he would be leading the line in 2026. That seems a long shot for Josh Sargent now,, but it is worth bearing in mind that he was one of the outstanding strikers in the Championship last season, scoring 15 goals off a relatively low volume of shots while contributing plenty for others. Norwich’s difficulties have impacted on his own form and leave him in an intriguing position heading into the January transfer window. 

Does Sargent gamble on a move to a top division with West Ham among the clubs credited with an interest in him? If not, is it worth gambling on a revival for Norwich as a whole, safe in the knowledge that this is a team that can make the most of his qualities? Is all of this moot given that the 25-year-old has struggled to prove his worth to Pochettino? The weeks ahead might offer a clearer answer to those and many other questions but if the history of the Championship is anything to go on, we’ll still be left with several dozen more we can’t answer.