Championship supercomputer forecasts Sheffield United & Sunderland shocks but Sheffield Wednesday & Portsmouth surprises

Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United now know what their 2024-25 Championship fixture list looks like after the EFL confirmed the schedule for the upcoming season earlier this week.

The Owls are at home to Plymouth Argyle on Sunday, August 11 while the Blades will mark their return to the second tier on Friday, August 9 with a visit to Deepdale to take on Preston North End. All eyes in Sheffield will have been most keen to see when the Steel City derby dates are as Untied and Wednesday prepare to renew their rivalry for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign.

The first contest between the Sheffield clubs will be at Bramall Lane on November 9 with the Hillsborough meeting scheduled for March 15, 2025. Although both of these dates could change slightly if the matches are selected for TV broadcast.

But where are United and Wednesday predicted to finish in English football’s second tier this season? We take a look with a predicted table based on a probability model provided by Grosvenor Sport. The supercomputer is a probability model, not determined by human predictions or bias. What happens is the supercomputer estimates the outcome of each remaining fixture based on a team’s current strength (based on factors such as league position and form) and betting market odds. The machine then simulates the remaining games in a season 1,000 times and constructs an average league table from the 1,000 simulations, to rule out anomalous results. And here is where the two Sheffield clubs are being tipped to finish...