Hull down, Ipswich champions - how the Championship might have looked

Hull City are getting relegated to League One instead of winning promotion to the Premier League and Ipswich Town are crowned champions ahead of Championship runners-up Coventry City.

Birmingham City have made it into the play-offs and Preston North End are going down with the Tigers.

If that sounds like a parallel universe, that is because it is.

With the Championship season done and dusted, BBC Sport and Opta have broken down the data for a light-hearted look at how the league would have taken shape with alternative tables.

Yes, we hear you. Actual points on the board is all that matters.

But expected points (xPTS) serve as an indicator for how much a team has over or under-performed across the season and takes into account their overall attacking and defensive performances.

Expected points are calculated by comparing the quality of goalscoring chances created (xG) and conceded (xGA) in every match. This then allows the data gurus at Opta to formulate each club's xPTS total.

The most remarkable takeaway if the league was decided on xPTS is that play-off winners Hull City would have finished 23rd and been relegated to the third tier along with Preston.

Ipswich would have been crowned champions, just edging out Coventry, who would still have won automatic promotion.

Sheffield United would be fifth and into the play-offs with Birmingham, while West Bromwich Albion, who finished 21st in the real table, were around a point shy of the top six on xPTS.

As well as the Tigers, Millwall and Wrexham also significantly overperformed their underlying metrics, while Oxford United under-performed and will perhaps feel relegation was avoidable.

Home advantage is often considered one of the most important factors in football.

So who made the most of having their supporters behind them and who struggled on the road?

Birmingham had the biggest swing in fortunes, picking up 68% of their points (44) at St Andrew's, while only three sides fared worse than Blues on their travels.

Chris Davies' side finished fourth in the home table and relied on their home form more than any other side, closely followed by West Brom, who accumulated 66% of their points at The Hawthorns.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, champions Coventry (55) and Ipswich (50), who won automatic promotion, picked up the most points at home.

Aside from Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn were the worst team on home soil.

Millwall were the best away side in the division, while Norwich were the only club outside the actual top six to feature in the away table's top six.

A lot has been made of Arsenal's top flight record-breaking use of set-pieces to score 29 of the 71 goals that helped them towards a first Premier League title in 22 years.

But who were the set-piece kings in the Championship?

Well, it seems there is a direct correlation between successfully executing set-pieces and becoming champions as Coventry led the way with 29, along with Southampton.

Saints were also susceptible from defending set plays though, with only Sheffield Wednesday (23) and Watford (24) conceding more goals than the 21 they allowed via that route. Southampton's south coast rivals Portsmouth also let in 21.

Millwall were the team most reliant on dead-ball situations to breach opposition defences with 25 - or 40% - of their 64 goals coming from corners, free-kicks, throw-ins or penalties.

And finally, what would have happened if the Championship season was split into two halves?

It was Norwich who produced the biggest recovery. The Canaries would have been relegated in 23rd position after 23 games.

But they would have been fifth - and into the play-offs - based on the second half of the campaign, highlighting the excellent job Philippe Clement did after replacing Liam Manning as boss in November 2025.

The biggest drop off came from Stoke City, who were 10th at the halfway stage but were second from bottom in the second half of the season with just 21 points from 23 matches.

Southampton will have regrets they could not string together two halves of the season. From 12th in the first half, Saints were top of the league in the second half with an excellent 49 points in that time.

Elsewhere, Middlesbrough would have been up in second, while Preston and Bristol City would have finished in the play-offs in a first-half season.

All three clubs dropped off, with Boro ranking eighth in the second half, North End 20th and the Robins 15th.