EFL 7/2 Acca – Gab Sutton

One of the reasons to doubt Coventry’s top two credentials before the season might have been a perceived lack of depth behind their best XI, yet perhaps having a small, tightly knit squad could work in their favour.

While wealthier favourites like Birmingham and Southampton are still working out their best XI, handing out league starts to 22 and 24 different players respectively, Coventry have only handed out 14, of which all outfielders were part of last season’s Play-Off side – so, it doesn’t take a genius to work out why they’ve found their rhythm so quickly.

Frank Lampard’s side have looked unstoppable: they’re top scoring in the Championship by some distance with 27 goals, Haji Wright, Brandon Thomas-Asante and Victor Torp grabbing 18 of those between them.

The Sky Blues are playing with a real fluency right now and welcome a Blackburn side that have lost five of their first eight.

Luton showed immense courage to appoint Jack Wilshere as their new head coach. They’d just suffered successive relegations, and are underperforming in League One, leaving some to ask big questions of the club - so many would have argued for an experienced head, rather than a rookie being a number one for the first time.

On the other hand, Wilshere is somebody the club feels can take them not just from A to B, but also from B to C if they’ve got it right, so it’s an appointment made with the long-term in mind.

And, while critics would say the former Arsenal midfielder is simply a name getting jobs off the back of his playing career, all the indications suggest he is genuinely an excellent coach; how well he adapts to senior management is to be seen.

Either way, the former Norwich coach should start well against a Mansfield side that have won just one of their last six league games.

After starting the season with three straight defeats, Barnet have done extremely well to enter the second half of October inside League Two’s top seven, something they’ve accomplished with 20 points from their last nine games.

Some might have expected the Bees to start brilliantly, still buzzing from swarming to the National League title last season with 102 points, but actually they’ve taken those extra few weeks to get going, with key men Nik Tavares, Callum Stead and Lee Ndlovu finding fitness, and Antony Hartigan readjusting to the tempo of the level.

The spine that achieved what they did in 2024-25 is starting to re-emerge, though, with Ndlovu’s physical presence offering them the ability to mix their game up and play longer at times, which actually helps their game on the deck because opponents don’t know what they’ll do.

Visitors Notts County are 13th, and that’s having played just one game thus far against top seven opposition, losing 1-0 at Gillingham in September.