The 2026-27 Championship season has almost reached 25% completion, and the league table shows who is flying and who is struggling.

The standings may potentially not appear as predicted at this early stage, with some clubs that performed well in 2025-26 collapsing and others who underperformed recently eventually advancing.

Preston North End appears to be destined at the bottom of the table since they are unable to buy a point right now, whereas Swansea City leads the pack – with a slew of other clubs chasing them.

Kevin Phillips is disappointed by two Championship sides.

Kevin Phillips, a Premier League striker turned commentator and manager who has won promotion from the second division of English football five times, will be keeping an eye on the Championship this season.

In an interview with Best Betting Sites, Phillips highlighted some of the season’s surprise packages, including two clubs who have struggled.Phillips named Norwich and Burnley as the most disappointing teams.I chose Norwich to be up there challenging just to demonstrate how much I know.

However, I was not alone; many other experts followed suit.”I’m disappointed with their current league ranking.”Burnley, one again, was quite disappointing. It appears that they are not getting out of it too often.

Norwich nearly lost out on the Championship play-offs last season thanks to a superb second half of the campaign under Philippe Clement, but their fortunes have deteriorated in 2026-27, coinciding with the departure of star Australian striker Mohamed Toure.

Burnley, meantime, are in risk of relegation from the Premier League to League One, as have Leicester City and Luton Town in recent years, with the Nicky Hayen era failing to get off to a good start – they have not won a league home match since October 2025.

Two Championship teams have positively surprised Kevin Phillips.

However, some clubs have surprised the ex-Sunderland icon positively, such as Birmingham City, where he played from 2008 to 2011, and Swansea, who are currently leading the Championship standings under Vitor Matos.”I think the surprising team is Swansea,” Phillips said.Has anyone seen Swansea sitting where they were at the start of the season? I surely did not.

“I know they’re a good side, but to be sat top of the league at this stage of the season, I think on 23 points, is brilliant, absolutely brilliant.”I assume Blues as well. Birmingham Football Club faces pressure due to their high spending, however they are currently on a winning streak.Did I see it coming? I assumed they had it in them. They’re on a roll right now, and I believe they’ve surprised a lot of people on the outside, but probably not those inside the football club.”

Birmingham City will attempt to chase down Swansea City before the international break.

The second international break of the 2026-27 season approaches in early November, with four Championship games remaining – four games for Swansea City to try to keep up with their rivals at the top of the table.

Birmingham are only three places and three points behind the South Wales team, with Middlesbrough and West Ham being even closer contenders, but Vitor Matos’ side will visit to St. Andrew’s on November 7, and Birmingham could theoretically surpass them in the table by then.

There are a lot of ifs and buts until the results come in, but Birmingham look better under Chris Davies this season than they did in 2025-26, and they could be in a good position for promotion.

The top eight appears to be a long way off for the two teams that Phillips is unhappy in, Norwich and Burnley, who both need to dramatically improve their records or face managerial changes at both Carrow Road and Turf Moor.