Derby County vs Huddersfield Town

Derby County and Huddersfield Town are set to trade tackles at Pride Park in their opening 2021/22 Championship fixture.

Derby’s hopes of returning to the Premier League after a 14-year stint in the Championship have been hampered by glaring off-field troubles as the ‘Rams’ enter the new season amid massive squad-selection problems. Although a victory here would be a significant confidence boost, a return of a single win from their last nine opening home matches across domestic league campaigns suggest such a scenario is unlikely to happen (D3, L5). The way Derby performed at the tail-end of last season is another issue, with Wayne Rooney’s men picking up a single win from their 15 matches in 2020/21 (D4, L10). Improving on last season’s goalscoring prowess is not unattainable, as the bar was set low thanks to an average of 0.78 goals scored per match.

Meanwhile, the visitors are another relegation candidate, according to the bookmakers. Huddersfield managed just one victory in the final ten Championship fixtures to conclude the 2020/21 season (D5, L4), netting under 1.5 goals on seven of those occasions. Huddersfield’s hopes of making a flying start here may be quickly dampened when looking at their disastrous league starts in recent years that saw them win just two of their opening ten opening games of the new season (D1, L7). The ‘Terriers’ have added several defensive players in the summer as part of the club’s bid to improve on a leaky 2020/21 Championship season that witnessed them concede a league-high 71 goals. Indeed, they conceded an average of 3.5 goals across their final four league trips last season.