Huddersfield Town and Burnley will both be looking to bounce back from disappointing 2021-22 campaigns when they meet in the 2022-23 Championship curtain raiser on Friday night.
Burnley suffered relegation from the Premier League last season. Meanwhile, Huddersfield fell to Nottingham Forest in the Championship play-off final.
Only 5️⃣ days until the season starts!Make sure you sync your mobile calendar to keep up to date with all of our fixtures 📲— Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) July 24, 2022
Only 5️⃣ days until the season starts!Make sure you sync your mobile calendar to keep up to date with all of our fixtures 📲
Can the Clarets secure a top-flight return under the guidance of Vincent Kompany? Will the Terries make amends for last season’s Wembley heartbreak? Let’s take a closer look at the teams.
Huddersfield finished third in the Championship last term – five points shy of the automatic promotion places and 12 points inside the play-offs.
The Terriers lost just ten of their 46 regular-season games, picking up 23 wins and 13 draws. Only second-place Bournemouth suffered fewer defeats.
Huddersfield won six of their final seven regular-season outings before claiming a 2-1 aggregate victory over Luton Town in the play-off semi-finals. However, they fell at the final hurdle.
Having suffered just three defeats across their previous 29 Championship matches, Huddersfield are expected to make a strong start to the new campaign.
On the flip side, Burnley failed to win any of their final four Premier League games last term – meaning they finished three points from safety.
After notching a record of seven wins, 14 draws and 17 losses, the Clarets can’t exactly complain about suffering relegation after six straight years in the top tier.
Burnley have claimed two easy friendly wins in recent weeks, claiming a 1-0 victory over Rochdale before beating Shrewsbury 3-1 last time out.
Of course, there is no doubting Vincent Kompany’s ability as a player. But there are still question marks over his coaching qualities. Can he take the Clarets back to the big time?
Head-to-head: Huddersfield claimed a 2-1 victory over Burnley in the FA Cup last season. However, Burnley have only lost one of their last eight meetings with the Terriers.
Eight of the past 11 matches between Huddersfield and Burnley have produced at least two goals, so we should see plenty of action on Friday.
Team news: After losing Harry Toffolo and Lewis O’Brien to Nottingham Forest, Huddersfield will be looking to Chelsea loanee Tino Anjorin to provide the spark this season.
As for Burnley, the look set to start to the campaign without the injured trio of Jay Rodriguez, Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Ashley Westwood.
Although Burnley were playing Premier League football a matter of months ago, Huddersfield are expected to hit the ground running this year.
Forebet predicts that Huddersfield will claim all three points on Friday, scoring over 1.5 goals while keeping a clean sheet.