5 days Ago By [email protected] (Peter Smith)
Thirteen teams have picked up within four points of each other since Mark Robins took charge of Stoke City in an indication of just how tight the Championship has been this season. Stoke have collected 21 points in the 17 matches since Robins took charge back of his first game on January 4, finding more consistency in performances and, with it, results as time has gone on, Robins has made his mark and he has been able to welcome key players back from the treatment room. More than half of the division has a remarkably comparable record.
Hull and Portsmouth have picked up 23 points in that same time frame, five others have pocketed 21, four 20 and Watford 19. Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers aren't far behind on 17, Derby have picked up to get 16 and Luton are now only one behind Derby. There are seven teams who have found markedly better form than everyone else in 2025, including Alex Neil's Millwall (31), but the nature of the table for January 4 and beyond is an indicator of how little there has been between sides this season, beyond what is normally expected even in a division that is notorious for being competitive.
To put it into context, consider the Premier League over the same period of time and Southampton (4), Leicester (4) and Ipswich (6) have only picked up a third or a half of the points total of the next worst team, West Ham (12). It is translated in another statistic, that every Championship team still theoretically has something to play for in the remaining four games this term - to the extent that three can still win promotion or get relegated. Swansea, Norwich and Sheffield Wednesday can all finish as high as fifth or as low as 22nd, although they are all expecting to be hunkered in mid-table away from drama.
The play-off race still goes down to ninth and mathematically down to 14th. The relegation battle goes up to 12th, although perhaps realistically up to 17th. Still, Stoke will hope they will have nothing to play for sooner rather than later.
Two rounds of fixtures in four days over Easter have the potential to be pivotal with so little time remaining after it to manoeuvre. While you're here, we have launched a new WhatsApp group to deliver the latest Stoke news directly to your phone. Click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in.
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