EFL Weekend: Tense Derbies and Grudges Await
The league table will say one thing this weekend. The mood in the stands will say something very different. From Turf Moor to The Den, from the Black Country to the university towns and a manager returning to old ground with a heavy story behind him, the EFL is braced for a round loaded with edge.
Burnley v Derby: early-season fear at Turf Moor
On paper, it looks like a solid Championship fixture: a relegated side against a club that only just missed the play-offs last season. In reality, Burnley v Derby County at Turf Moor feels like a warning siren.
Burnley are bottom. Winless. Still waiting for a spark. Derby are hardly in better shape: four points from seven games, three straight defeats and confidence draining away.
It is too early in the season to stamp “relegation battle” on either of them, but the signs are ugly enough. Saturday at 15:00 BST carries a weight that no one in either camp wanted this soon.
Derby’s problems run deeper than form. Sweden international Jacob Widell Zetterstrom has been ruled out with a knee injury, stripping the Rams of their first-choice goalkeeper at the worst possible time.
“The defensive aspect for Derby at the moment is under scrutiny, we are conceding goals, and to lose your first-choice goalkeeper is a big blow,” former Rams academy coach Darren Robinson told BBC Radio Derby.
Burnley need a first win. Derby need a halt to the slide. One of them could leave with their season already feeling like a slog.
Millwall v West Ham: scars, noise and top spot at The Den
Some derby defeats never quite fade. For Millwall, 2012 at Upton Park still stings: West Ham went down to 10 men in the ninth minute yet still found a way to win 2-1. That sort of loss lingers.
Fast forward to now and the stakes are different but the feeling is familiar. Millwall started this Championship campaign fast, then suddenly lost their stride. West Ham, after an unsteady return to the division, have surged to the top.
They arrive at The Den on Saturday (12:30 BST) chasing a fifth straight victory and the chance to really plant their flag as early league leaders.
For the Lions, it is about more than points. It is about stopping their London rivals from strutting away with the narrative, about proving that the early-season wobble is a blip, not a trend.
A febrile Den, a flying league leader, a rivalry with history and grievance baked in. No one will be treating this as “just another game”.
Wolves v West Brom: the Black Country grudge returns
Molineux has waited five years for this. The Black Country derby is back on Sunday (12:00 BST), and with it comes a flood of bad memories for Wolves.
The last time West Bromwich Albion visited in 2021, they left with a 3-2 win. Painful enough. But say “Wolves v West Brom” to most fans and another date still bites hardest: 2012, when Albion ran riot in a 5-1 victory that humiliated their rivals.
James Morrison was on the pitch that day, a key figure in that demolition. Now he returns as Baggies boss, 14 years on, standing in the technical area and eyeing another chapter of misery for Wolves.
Form, tactics, table positions – they all matter. Yet in this fixture, emotion often trumps logic. Wolves want payback. Albion want to twist the knife again. The Black Country will stop to watch.
Cambridge v Oxford: brains, boats and a promotion push
Cambridge and Oxford usually fight their battles on water, oars cutting through the Thames in the famous Boat Race. This weekend, the rivalry moves firmly onto grass.
Both Cambridge United and Oxford United have started the League One season with purpose. Both have their sights set upwards, not sideways.
Neil Harris has guided Cambridge to a sharp adjustment to life in the division: just one defeat in six games (W3 D2). Compact, organised, quietly efficient.
Across the divide, Aaron Ramsey’s Oxford are pushing through their own obstacles. A transfer embargo, the hangover of relegation disappointment – none of it has stopped them from matching that early pace in five games (W3 D1).
Both sides sit in the play-off places, separated by a single point. The history between the cities gives this fixture extra spice, but the footballing stakes are clear enough. Saturday at 15:00 BST feels like a marker: which of these university towns is truly ready to lead a promotion charge?
Peterborough v Doncaster: McCann’s return with perspective
Grant McCann’s week-to-week reality is a familiar one in football: bottom of the league, no wins, pressure building. But his story carries more weight than the table alone suggests.
The Doncaster manager recently revealed he was diagnosed with skin cancer last year. He says he has recovered, and that experience changes how he views the strain of results and league positions.
On the pitch, the numbers are stark. Doncaster sit at the foot of the table, winless with three draws and three defeats. Technically under pressure, undeniably short on points.
Next up is Peterborough United away on Saturday (15:00 BST), a place McCann knows intimately. He has worn the shirt and sat in the home dugout as manager. Now he arrives as the visiting boss, with his current side desperate to ignite their season.
Peterborough are only two points better off and hardly comfortable themselves. A familiar ground, two struggling teams, one manager trying to keep the noise down.
“I'm not putting any extra on the pressure to the players, if anything I'm feeling a bit calmer,” McCann told BBC Radio Sheffield.
“Nobody wants to be in position where we haven't won in six games but if we look at all the games, we've had really good opportunities to put the game away. We haven't quite done that but we have to stay on top of what we believe in and it will certainly come.”
For Doncaster, the question is simple: does that belief finally turn into a first win, and does it happen in the one stadium that might mean more to their manager than any other?
Walsall v Port Vale: short trip, long memory
Port Vale fans do not have to travel far on Saturday. The journey from Burslem to Walsall is short. The emotional distance between the clubs is not.
Last season, the Saddlers watched on as Vale rode the chaos of a rollercoaster 2024-25 campaign all the way to promotion ahead of them. Now the Valiants are back in League Two and already feeling the strain.
They sit just above the relegation line, their first win of the season only arriving last weekend against Exeter City. That victory brought relief. It also brings a challenge: can they back it up?
History says this fixture is rarely straightforward for Vale. They won it last time out, but that broke a grim run – Walsall had gone unbeaten in the previous seven meetings, winning six of them.
The Saddlers are unbeaten in the league so far this season and have no intention of letting that record go, especially not against neighbours who once celebrated promotion in front of them.
Derbies, old scars, promotion chases, survival scraps. The EFL weekend is laced with tension. By Sunday night, a few seasons might already feel very different.
