2025-26 SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP PREDICTION: Opta Supercomputer Round 3 Game Day Picks

Championship soccer enters the third matchday weekend of the 2025-26 season. Six teams remain winless and only three of those 24 teams hold a 100% record after two games - Stoke City, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich.

Of course, we've already provided you with Opta's answer to the question ofPredictions for the Championship season Supercomputers, plus new players we think you should keep an eye on and our case The League is the most exciting league in Europe.

Now our focus shifts to the third game-day battle of the 2025-26 season and how the supercomputer predicts how each game will play out throughout the weekend.

The Championship is a notoriously unpredictable league, but opta the supercomputer will try anyway ......

Matchday 3 Predictions

Match 3 starts on Friday night when Derby County host Bristol City at Pride Park in front of the Sky TV cameras.

Derby County remain without a point after losing to Stoke City Manchester City and Coventry City - both of which John Eustace's side played in - continued until 20 minutes were left to play. They're hoping for a repeat of last season, when they won 3-0 in front of their own fans because they hadn't lost their first three league games in a season since 2020-21.

The Opta supercomputer here favors visitors Bristol City, though. They won the pre-match simulation at 40.9%, while Derby County prevailed at 33.4%.

This is the away team favorite on Supercomputer Productions MD3 - the other being Leicester City's Valley who will face Nathan Jones' Charlton Athletic.

Charlton and Leicester City both started the season with late finishes One-goal wins over Watford and Sheffield Wednesday But neither of them managed to win on MD 2.

A goalless draw with Bristol City kept Charlton unbeaten and began to rejuvenate as a Championship club, while Leicester City left 2-1 behind away to Preston North End, despite 16-year-old Jeremy Mongea becoming the youngest goalscorer in Championship history (since the 2004 rebranding).

It will be Charlton's 1,000th home league game in England The Second Division will see Leicester City looking to overcome a nine-game league winless streak on the road (D2 L7).

The supercomputer thinks this will be close, and Leicester City's predicted win rate in the simulation is 3.2% (38.6%) higher than Charlton's (35.4%).

MD 10 The remaining 3 games have all seen the home team win more in 10,000 pre-game simulations, often more often than their opponents by the Opta supercomputer.

That's good news for both Sheffield United and Wrexham, who go into the weekend without a point from two games when they host Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday, respectively.

Stoke City (away to Southampton) and Middlesbrough (at Norwich City) are expected to be at the top of the Championship table fully ahead come the end of the 2025-26 season, which could open the door for West Bromwich Albion come the weekend.

The Baggies beat Blackburn and Wrexham by a single goal so far this season and this weekend they host Portsmouth at Hawthorn.

West Bromwich Albion are unbeaten in their last eight home league games against Portsmouth (W6 D2) since losing 3-0 to The Hawthorns in February 1998. The supercomputer has allocated 74.5% to increase the odds to nine games, while WBA have won all three points 48.8% of 10,000 pre-match simulated games.

The supercomputer's most confident option for the weekend is Coventry City, who host QPR on Saturday afternoon.

Frank Lampard's side, who had previously drawn with Hull City in MD 1 (0-0), came back from behind to take all three points at Derby County to win 5-3 at the weekend, with the supercomputer seeing them enter the competition at Coventry Building Society's 54.2% Sims Arena.