Championship playoffs: Fulham look the best bet for promotion to Premier League

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for the Sky Bet Championship playoffs, starting on Sunday.

Best bet

Fulham to be promoted
2pts 5-2 Sky Bet

Playoff preview

It is not just football ability that will decide who wins the Sky Bet Championship playoffs. Psychology will have a huge impact as well.

In that respect, Brentford and Swansea have the most to deal with.

The Bees would be watching from the sidelines having claimed their Premier League spot if they had beaten Barnsley in their final game on Wednesday, so it will be interesting to see how they cope with missing out after losing 2-1 at home.

Meanwhile, the Swans sensationally overturned a goal-difference deficit of six to pip Nottingham Forest to the final berth with a 4-1 win at Reading. They have to quickly come down from their cloud of euphoria with potentially three more matches to play.

Brentford, who finished third, had won seven straight post-lockdown games before losing their final two regular-season fixtures and Thomas Frank's side have been a tough nut to crack at Griffin Park, a stadium they will leave after next week's second leg against Swansea.

Forest are the only away team to have won there since November 2 and all three of Brentford's playoff rivals - Fulham and Cardiff make up the line-up - have lost there this season.

The Bees have dropped just two points in their six games against their three rivals and that was after they surrendered an early two-goal lead to draw at the Cardiff City Stadium.

However, their 2-0 win at Fulham has been the only one of those games played since the lockdown and while they had conceded one goal in five home games before their loss to the Tykes, their last two matches are a concern for those backing them as favourites to start their first season in their new home in the Premier League.

While Brentford's record against their rivals is excellent, Cardiff failed to win any of their matches against their three rivals and lost all of their away meetings.

The Bluebirds will take heart from claiming four points against champions Leeds and have scored at least twice in eight of their final 11 league matches.

However, only two of their eight victories on the road came against teams who finished in the top ten, with seventh-placed Forest the highest-finishing side.

Their arch-rivals Swansea will perhaps be mindful that only three sixth-placed teams have won the Championship playoffs since the turn of the century. Blackpool were the most recent to do so in 2010.

Swansea's win against the Royals grabbed the headlines, but their place in the playoffs owes much to the quality of their start after they won five and drew one of their opening six games, which included a 1-0 win at Elland Road.

Steve Cooper's side won three of their final six home games, but those victories were against managerless Bristol City and Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday who hardly completed the campaign in fine fettle.

They also failed to scored in four of their last seven home matches, so there is a danger that their spectacular success at the Madejski Stadium glosses over a few things, particularly as Reading had won just one of their previous ten home matches.

From a price perspective, Fulham could represent decent value.

They lost 3-0 at Leeds, a defeat that looked as if it would have huge consequences as top goalscorer Aleksandar Mitrovic planted an elbow on Ben White and was subsequently banned for three matches.

However, Scott Parker's team won all their games in the Serbian striker's absence and they haven't let up.

Since that Elland Road reverse, they claimed a goalless draw at promoted West Brom and while they were unable to win at Wigan on Wednesday, the cash-strapped Latics had lost just one of their nine post-lockdown games in their battle against the drop.

That Leeds loss is the only away defeat the Cottagers have suffered in their last 12 away games and the fact that seven of those matches were draws demonstrates their ability to scrap.

Mitrovic is the league's best striker and although they also had a slim chance of claiming promotion on Wednesday, their hangover may not be as strong as the one Brentford are suffering.

They look a decent bet to make an immediate return to the promised land.

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