Season | 2020–21 |
---|---|
Dates | 11 September 2020 – 9 May 2021 |
Champions | Norwich City 2nd Championship title 5th 2nd tier title |
Promoted | Norwich City Watford Brentford |
Relegated | Wycombe Wanderers Rotherham United Sheffield Wednesday |
Matches played | 552 |
Goals scored | 1,274 (2.31 per match) |
Top goalscorer | Ivan Toney (Brentford) (33 goals)[1] |
Biggest home win | Norwich City 7–0 Huddersfield Town (6 April 2021) |
Biggest away win | Preston North End 0–5 Brentford (10 April 2021)[1] |
Highest scoring | Brentford 7–2 Wycombe Wanderers (30 January 2021) |
Longest winning run | Norwich City (9 games)[1] |
Longest unbeaten run | Brentford (21 games)[1] |
Longest winless run | Derby County Wycombe Wanderers (11 games)[1] |
Longest losing run | Sheffield Wednesday Wycombe Wanderers (7 games)[1] |
Highest attendance | 11,689[2] |
Lowest attendance | 1,000[3] |
← 2019–20 2021–22 → |
The 2020–21 EFL Championship (referred to as the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the 5th season of the EFL Championship under its current title and the 29th season under its current league division format.
The following teams have changed division since the 2019–20 season:
To Championship[edit]Promoted from League One Relegated from the Premier League |
From Championship[edit]Promoted to the Premier League Relegated to League One
|
As with the end to the previous season, the season was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in games being played behind closed doors. However, on 19 September 2020, two matches in the division, between Norwich City and Preston North End at Carrow Road, and between Middlesbrough and Bournemouth at The Riverside Stadium, were held in front of 1,000 spectators, as part of EFL pilots.[6]
This was seen as the beginning of fans gradually returning, but a rapid rise of cases from the end of September (eventually resulting in a second nationwide lockdown in November), led to plans being put on hold.[7]
With the second nationwide lockdown ending on 2 December 2020, it was announced England would return to its previous three tier system, with clubs in Tier 2 allowed to host a maximum of 2,000 spectators.[8] The first of these matches took place on 2 December 2020 itself, although the matches of Luton Town and Wycombe Wanderers were capped at 1,000 spectators, as they had not previously held an EFL pilot event.[9]
On Saturday 5 December 2020, Reading, Millwall, Watford, Norwich City and Brentford all hosted matches in front of the maximum allotted 2,000 spectators permitted, with fans in attendance at Brentford Community Stadium for the very first time.[10]
However, it was then announced that from Wednesday 16 December 2020, that London, parts of Essex and parts of Hertfordshire, would move up to Tier 3, the highest tier of restrictions in England, meaning football clubs in these areas, (for The EFL Championship: Brentford, Millwall, Queens Park Rangers and Watford), would revert to playing behind closed doors without fans, due to a rise in coronavirus cases, following a tier review.[11]
It was then announced that from Saturday, 19 December 2020 that Bedfordshire, Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire would also move into Tier 3, meaning for the EFL Championship that Luton Town, Reading & Wycombe Wanderers would also revert to playing behind closed doors without fans again, as of this date. Conversely, Bristol City, who had previously been unable to host fans, would now be able to allow fans back in, with Bristol being downgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2.[12] As of these updated restrictions, it now meant that only Bournemouth, Bristol City and Norwich City's stadiums would be open to host fans in The EFL Championship.[13] This was reversed on Wednesday 23 December 2020, with Bournemouth the sole team in the division eligible to host fans.[14][15] A week later on 30 December 2020, Tier 2 was removed in England, with mainland England in either Tiers 3 or 4, meaning once again, no clubs could host fans for the foreseeable future.[16] A third national lockdown in January 2021 meant that fans ultimately were barred from matches for the rest of the regular season. Following an easing of restrictions in May 2021, the play-offs were able to take place in front of crowds of up to 20% of a stadium's capacity.
Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Birmingham City | End of caretaker spell | 22 July 2020 | Pre-season | Aitor Karanka[39] | 31 July 2020 | |
Huddersfield Town | Danny Schofield[38] | Carlos Corberán[40] | 23 July 2020 | |||
Watford | Hayden Mullins[41][42] | 26 July 2020 | Vladimir Ivić[43] | 15 August 2020 | ||
Bournemouth | Eddie Howe[44] | Mutual consent | 1 August 2020 | Jason Tindall[45] | 8 August 2020 | |
Reading | Mark Bowen[46] | 29 August 2020 | Veljko Paunović[46] | 29 August 2020 | ||
Barnsley | Gerhard Struber[47] | Signed by New York Red Bulls | 6 October 2020 | 21st | Valérien Ismaël[48] | 23 October 2020 |
Nottingham Forest | Sabri Lamouchi[49] | Sacked | 22nd | Chris Hughton[49] | 6 October 2020 | |
Sheffield Wednesday | Garry Monk[50] | 9 November 2020 | 23rd | Tony Pulis[51] | 13 November 2020 | |
Derby County | Phillip Cocu[52] | Mutual consent | 14 November 2020 | 24th | Wayne Rooney[a][53][54] | 27 November 2020 |
Watford | Vladimir Ivić[55] | Sacked | 19 December 2020 | 5th | Xisco Muñoz[56] | 20 December 2020 |
Sheffield Wednesday | Tony Pulis[57] | 28 December 2020 | 23rd | Darren Moore[58] | 1 March 2021 | |
Cardiff City | Neil Harris[59] | 21 January 2021 | 15th | Mick McCarthy[60] | 22 January 2021 | |
Bournemouth | Jason Tindall[61] | 3 February 2021 | 6th | Jonathan Woodgate[b][62] | 21 February 2021 | |
Bristol City | Dean Holden[63] | 16 February 2021 | 13th | Nigel Pearson[64] | 22 February 2021 | |
Birmingham City | Aitor Karanka[65] | Resigned | 16 March 2021 | 21st | Lee Bowyer[66] | 16 March 2021 |
Preston North End | Alex Neil[67] | Sacked | 21 March 2021 | 16th | Frankie McAvoy[68] | 10 May 2021 |
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion, qualification or relegation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Norwich City (C, P) | 46 | 29 | 10 | 7 | 75 | 36 | +39 | 97 | Promotion to the Premier League |
2 | Watford (P) | 46 | 27 | 10 | 9 | 63 | 30 | +33 | 91 | |
3 | Brentford (O, P) | 46 | 24 | 15 | 7 | 79 | 42 | +37 | 87 | Qualification for Championship play-offs |
4 | Swansea City | 46 | 23 | 11 | 12 | 56 | 39 | +17 | 80 | |
5 | Barnsley | 46 | 23 | 9 | 14 | 58 | 50 | +8 | 78 | |
6 | Bournemouth | 46 | 22 | 11 | 13 | 73 | 46 | +27 | 77 | |
7 | Reading | 46 | 19 | 13 | 14 | 62 | 54 | +8 | 70 | |
8 | Cardiff City | 46 | 18 | 14 | 14 | 66 | 49 | +17 | 68 | |
9 | Queens Park Rangers | 46 | 19 | 11 | 16 | 57 | 55 | +2 | 68 | |
10 | Middlesbrough | 46 | 18 | 10 | 18 | 55 | 53 | +2 | 64 | |
11 | Millwall | 46 | 15 | 17 | 14 | 47 | 52 | −5 | 62 | |
12 | Luton Town | 46 | 17 | 11 | 18 | 41 | 52 | −11 | 62 | |
13 | Preston North End | 46 | 18 | 7 | 21 | 49 | 56 | −7 | 61 | |
14 | Stoke City | 46 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 50 | 52 | −2 | 60 | |
15 | Blackburn Rovers | 46 | 15 | 12 | 19 | 65 | 54 | +11 | 57 | |
16 | Coventry City | 46 | 14 | 13 | 19 | 49 | 61 | −12 | 55 | |
17 | Nottingham Forest | 46 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 37 | 45 | −8 | 52 | |
18 | Birmingham City | 46 | 13 | 13 | 20 | 37 | 61 | −24 | 52 | |
19 | Bristol City | 46 | 15 | 6 | 25 | 46 | 68 | −22 | 51 | |
20 | Huddersfield Town | 46 | 12 | 13 | 21 | 50 | 71 | −21 | 49 | |
21 | Derby County | 46 | 11 | 11 | 24 | 36 | 58 | −22 | 44 | |
22 | Wycombe Wanderers (R) | 46 | 11 | 10 | 25 | 39 | 69 | −30 | 43 | Relegation to EFL League One |
23 | Rotherham United (R) | 46 | 11 | 9 | 26 | 44 | 60 | −16 | 42 | |
24 | Sheffield Wednesday (R) | 46 | 12 | 11 | 23 | 40 | 61 | −21 | 41[a] |
Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||||
3 | Brentford | 0 | 3 | 3 | |||||||
6 | Bournemouth | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
3 | Brentford | 2 | |||||||||
4 | Swansea City | 0 | |||||||||
4 | Swansea City | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
5 | Barnsley | 0 | 1 | 1 |
First leg
Bournemouth | 1–0 | Brentford |
---|---|---|
Danjuma 55' | Report |
Barnsley | 0–1 | Swansea City |
---|---|---|
Report | A. Ayew 39' |
Second leg
Swansea City | 1–1 | Barnsley |
---|---|---|
Grimes 39' | Woodrow 71' |
Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Ivan Toney1 | Brentford | 33 |
2 | Adam Armstrong | Blackburn Rovers | 28 |
3 | Teemu Pukki | Norwich City | 26 |
4 | Kieffer Moore | Cardiff City | 20 |
5 | Lucas João | Reading | 19 |
6 | André Ayew2 | Swansea City | 17 |
Arnaut Danjuma1 | Bournemouth | ||
8 | Emiliano Buendía | Norwich City | 15 |
Dominic Solanke | Bournemouth | ||
10 | Jamal Lowe | Swansea City | 14 |
Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adam Armstrong | Blackburn Rovers | Wycombe Wanderers | 5–0 (H)[72] | 19 September 2020 |
James Collins | Luton Town | Preston North End | 3–0 (H)[73] | 12 December 2020 |
Sergi Canós | Brentford | Cardiff City | 3–2 (A)[74] | 26 December 2020 |
Ivan Toney | Wycombe Wanderers | 7–2 (H)[75] | 30 January 2021 | |
Teemu Pukki | Norwich City | Huddersfield Town | 7–0 (H)[76] | 6 April 2021 |
Adam Armstrong | Blackburn Rovers | 5–2 (H)[77] | 24 April 2021 | |
Harry Wilson | Cardiff City | Birmingham City | 4–0 (A)[78] | 1 May 2021 |
Adam Armstrong | Blackburn Rovers | 5–2 (H)[79] | 8 May 2021 |
Rank | Player | Club | Clean sheets |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Freddie Woodman1 | Swansea City | 21 |
2 | Bartosz Białkowski | Millwall | 17 |
Tim Krul | Norwich City | ||
Rafael | Reading | ||
5 | Asmir Begović1 | Bournemouth | 16 |
David Raya | Brentford | ||
7 | Brice Samba | Nottingham Forest | 14 |
8 | Daniel Bachmann | Watford | 13 |
Marcus Bettinelli | Middlesbrough | ||
Neil Etheridge | Birmingham City |
Month | Manager of the Month | Player of the Month | Reference | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
September | Veljko Paunović | Reading | Bradley Johnson | Blackburn Rovers | [82] |
October | Neil Warnock | Middlesbrough | Ivan Toney | Brentford | [83] |
November | Vladimir Ivić | Watford | David Brooks | Bournemouth | [84] |
December | Thomas Frank | Brentford | Duncan Watmore | Middlesbrough | [85] |
January | Steve Cooper | Swansea City | Matt Crooks | Rotherham United | [86] |
February | Mick McCarthy | Cardiff City | Teemu Pukki | Norwich City | [87] |
March | Xisco Muñoz | Watford | Alex Mowatt | Barnsley | [88] |
April | Jonathan Woodgate | Bournemouth | Arnaut Danjuma | Bournemouth | [89] |
Award | Winner | Club |
---|---|---|
Player of the Season | Emiliano Buendía[90] | Norwich City |
Young Player of the Season | Michael Olise[90] | Reading |
Championship Team of the season
Pos. | Player | Club | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
GK | Asmir Begović | Bournemouth | [90][91] |
DF | Max Aarons | Norwich City | |
DF | Grant Hanley | Norwich City | |
DF | Sean Morrison | Cardiff City | |
DF | Adam Masina | Watford | |
MF | Emiliano Buendía | Norwich City | |
MF | Michael Olise | Reading | |
MF | Alex Mowatt | Barnsley | |
FW | Arnaut Danjuma | Bournemouth | |
FW | Ivan Toney | Brentford | |
FW | Teemu Pukki | Norwich City | |
Manager | Daniel Farke | Norwich City |
Pos. | Player | Club |
---|---|---|
GK | Tim Krul | Norwich City |
DF | Max Aarons | Norwich City |
DF | Ethan Pinnock | Brentford |
DF | Grant Hanley | Norwich City |
DF | Rico Henry | Brentford |
MF | Emiliano Buendía | Norwich City |
MF | Michael Olise | Reading |
MF | Oliver Skipp | Norwich City |
FW | Adam Armstrong | Blackburn Rovers |
FW | Ivan Toney | Brentford |
FW | Teemu Pukki | Norwich City |