The 5 Biggest Things To Look Out For In The EFL This Weekend

The 5 Biggest Things To Look Out For In The EFL This Weekend

The EFL is officially back following the international break coming to a close for the final time in 2025. Across the three divisions there are plenty of stories, could be a new manager in charge, how about a promotion/relegation six pointer this early on in the season and we’re even being treated to a couple of derby’s which we’ll certainly focus on later in the article. Here we’re going to go through five of the biggest things to look out for this weekend in the EFL.

In no particular order we’re starting out with Newport County’s latest appointment, Christian Fuchs (yes the one who won the league with Leicester). He takes on his first ever managerial task after being assistant manager to Dean Smith across the pond for Charlotte FC.

🤝 Newport County is delighted to announce the appointment of Christian Fuchs as the club’s new manager.

Welcome to Rodney Parade, Christian 👊#OneClubOneCounty pic.twitter.com/pgAuoVTcrf

— Newport County (@NewportCounty) November 20, 2025

He takes over from David Hughes who lasted 175 days or 21 games, in his reign as manager he only managed 0.95 points per game and was without a doubt sending Newport down.

The Austrian certainly has his work cut out for him as he takes on a side who sit bottom of League 2, after 16 games they have just 11 points, three wins, two draws and 11 losses. Fuchs will certainly want to improve their home form as they are the only side in the division who haven’t won at home. They are only four points from safety so he will be hoping he can start fast and rack up a couple of good results in no time to lift Newport off the foot of the football league.

They will be one to watch over the next few match weeks but especially this week in Fuchs’ debut.

Now moving east across the country to Norfolk we have another club who have had a torrid start to their season and have also replaced their manager over the international break.

Welcome to Norwich City, Philippe Clement 🔰

The Belgian has agreed to become our new head coach on a deal until 2029 ✍️

— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) November 18, 2025

Philippe Clement takes over from Liam Manning at Norwich City, Manning left Bristol City after guiding them to the play offs last season so hope was high when Norwich announced they were appointing him but his time at the club has been anything but good.

Norwich are currently second to bottom on just nine points after 15 games and in that time they have just won twice. They are four points from safety but haven’t won a game for a staggering 11 games, Clement will be hoping to instantly change that run of form when they travel to Birmingham on Saturday.

Moving on we head to Bolton in League 1, they welcome Bradford for what looks to be a fierce game as both teams are on the hunt for automatic promotion to the Championship.

Bradford who are looking at back to back promotions for the first time in League 1 since Wrexham did the feat last seasons. They started the season on fire as they went unbeaten in their first nine games in all competitions putting them top of League 1. Despite this hot start they’ve slowly regressed and have now failed to win in their last six games.

Bolton however can do no wrong at the moment. Winning five of their last five games in all competitions, and after having a slowish start they’ve really kicked on as the seasons progressed. They also have the best home form in the league as they’ve not lost yet.

Being a Brighton fan I have to mention his name but Amario Cozier-Duberry, the Brighton loanee, has been a key reason to Boltons success, arguably being their best player he’s managed six goals and six assists in League 1 this season.

Delivery for Cozier-Duberry 📬

Bolton’s Amario Cozier-Duberry is presented with his PFA League One Fans’ Player of the Month Award 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Q52Os9hGTw

— PFA (@PFA) November 18, 2025

Both teams will see this game as an opportunity to leap frog the other so if I were to pick a fixture to keep an eye on this weekend it’d be this one.

Now turning our attention to a couple of Derby games.

The first being the Lancashire Derby between Preston and Blackburn. This derby is always one of the first fixtures each fan will look for. In a game like this form goes completely out the window and all that matters is who turns up on the day.

🌹 A Lancashire derby to kick off the weekend! 🙌#EFL | #SkyBetChampionship pic.twitter.com/sbGfPUhhnN

— Sky Bet Championship (@SkyBetChamp) November 21, 2025

Last time the two met was back in January where Blackburn had the bragging rights as they saw off Preston with a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Makhtar Gueye and Todd Cantwell.

Going into this game both sides have had opposite starts to the season, Preston have looked really good and are fourth on 26 points having lost just three games all season so far in the Championship. They are on the hunt for automatic promotion being within a game of Middlesbrough who occupy the final automatic spot.

Blackburn however have had a less promising start. They are 19th and have 16 points in that time. Last season they missed out on the play offs by just two points so fans were hoping they could kick on again this season but that just hasn’t happened and they are looking over their shoulders instead of what’s in front of them.

Now to the biggest game across the whole of the EFL, the Steel City Derby. Sheffield Wednesday welcome Sheffield United to Hillsborough. Sheffield United managed to do the double over Wednesday last season beating them 1-0 on both occasions.

Turning our attention to each team this season it has been far from pretty. Sheffield United who missed out on promotion to the Premier League last season thanks to a Tommy Watson stoppage time winner in the play-off final. This season they were one of the favourites to go up but they have shocked everyone as to how poor they’ve been.

Losing seven of their first seven games to start the season led to Ruben Selles getting sacked and them welcoming back Chris Wilder, Blades fans were hoping that their former manager would help turn their season around but not much progress is being made, results have slightly improved but they are still in the relegation zone on 10 points.

Moving onto Sheffield Wednesday, I could talk for days about their ownership problems but I won’t do that today. After getting a -12 point deduction and players and managers leaving because on unpaid wages they are almost destined to go down. They have -4 points and are 17 points from safety, if they somehow manage to stay up then I think it’ll be the greatest survival story ever in football.

However it’ll be a packed Hillsborough with both sets of fans well up for it because a win in a game like this can potentially be the start of a good run of form, and with both teams having a rough season anything can happen.

Throwback to this brilliant video which shows the true atmopshere of this game that both sets of fans can produce

Throwback to the Steel City derby, back in 2017, when Sheffield Wednesday equalised the whole stadium was bouncing… 🙌

It didn’t last long though as Sheffield United retook the lead just a minute later.

Scenes in that away end… 😍 pic.twitter.com/L0x7sK93Tk

— Football Away Days (@FBAwayDays) March 14, 2025