Recently promoted Sky Bet Championship sides Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic both continued their strong starts to the season with impressive wins on Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, Leeds United’s perfect start to the season came to an end after being held to a 2-2 draw by Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium.
With 10 midweek fixtures taking place in the Championship, here is who made our first full midweek stats-based Championship Team of the Week, based on match ratings from WhoScored.com.
Formation: 4-3-3
Goalkeeper: Ben Alnwick (Bolton Wanderers) 8.92
Bolton moved up to third in the league standings after a 1-0 win over Birmingham City at the University of Bolton Stadium.
Despite having less than a third of the total match shots, Bolton secured their win thanks to a magnificent defensive display.
Goalkeeper Ben Alnwick made six saves without being beaten to help his side maintain their unbeaten start to the league campaign.
Alnwick was named as WhoScored’s star man and with five aerial duels won on top of his half-a-dozen tally of saves, it was fully deserved.
Defender: Reece James (Wigan Athletic) 8.28
It may have only been Reece James’ fourth senior appearance, but the defender proved to be integral as Wigan earned a 3-0 win away at Stoke City inside the bet365 Stadium.
The on-loan defender from Chelsea made six tackles, the highest of any player in the match and triple the amount of challenges of Stoke’s highest players, the best of which only managed two.
James also won four aerial duels, the second most of Wigan player, only topped by the in-form midfielder, Nick Powell.
He is already showing maturity way beyond his years during his short time in Lancashire, but having been labelled as a future star by the likes of John Terry, this may not be the first time we see the 18-year-old make our Team of the Week.
Defender: Charlie Mulgrew (Blackburn Rovers) 8.21
Blackburn Rovers looked destined for a defeat at home to Reading on Wednesday after conceding two goals in the first 25 minutes at Ewood Park.
However, a brace of second-half penalties from defender and captain, Charlie Mulgrew, helped Rovers to extend their unbeaten league run for another game.
Mulgrew’s pass success rate of 78% was the fourth highest out of the hosts’ starting side and the fifth highest out of players from either team to feature from the offset.
The 32-year-old scored 14 league goals from centre-back in the Sky Bet League One last season, and with two in four already this season, the Scotland international’s attacking credentials could be crucial in giving Blackburn hope of surviving their maiden season back in the Championship.
Defender: Timm Klose (Norwich City) 8.31
Norwich City recorded their first league win of the season on Wednesday, with a 2-0 victory over Preston North End at Carrow Road.
The Canaries’ first clean sheet of the season was largely down to a superb individual performance from centre-back Timm Klose.
Klose won 14 aerial duels against The Lilywhites, seven more than any other player in that match.
He also made four tackles, also the most of any player.
Defender: Mark Beevers (Bolton Wanderers) 8.61
Making up our defence is Alnwick’s Bolton teammate, Mark Beevers.
Similarly to Klose, Beevers kept a clean sheet and won 14 aerial duels as Bolton earned their second consecutive 1-0 league win in the space of four days against Birmingham.
Beevers won 74% of his attempted aerial duels, only narrowly beaten by opposition midfielder Maikel Kiftenbeld, who was 1% more successful.
He so far has an average match rating of 7.42 out of 10, the fourth best in Phil Parkinson’s squad, only bettered by Josh Magennis, David Wheater and Pawel Olkowski.
Midfielder: Jarrod Bowen (Hull City) 8.45
Hull City also notched the first win of their league campaign, having beaten Rotherham United 3-2 at the AESSEAL New York Stadium on Tuesday.
Jarrod Bowen was one of three midfielders who stood out in the win, having provided the assist for The Tigers’ third goal of the match.
Bowen teed up Jackson Irvine after sprinting between Richard Wood and Zak Vyner before his Australian teammate netted his second of the match.
The 21-year-old also made four more dribbles than the entire Rotherham side and made the joint-highest number of tackles out of the entire Hull team.
Midfielder: Gavin Massey (Wigan Athletic) 8.39
Winger Gavin Massey was vital in Wigan’s shock victory over Stoke, with his goal and assist making him WhoScored’s star man of the tie.
Massey created the first goal of the match after his low cross found WIll Grigg in the penalty area, who opened the scoring with a first-time strike past England international goalkeeper Jack Butland.
Five minutes later, Massey doubled their lead himself; he won the ball three times before thundering through The Potters’ back line with a sublime piece of skill and firing his shot into the bottom corner.
He also had the third highest passing accuracy percentage of Wigan’s starting side and a 100% dribble completion rate.
Midfielder: Jackson Irvine (Hull City) 8.47
Having scored just twice in his previous 40 games, Hull midfielder Irvine netted twice in less than 20 minutes to help Hull earn a win at Rotherham.
His first came midway through the first half after volleying Eric Lichaj’s cross into the roof of the net.
Irvine’s second goal came shortly after the interval and would have been one of the easiest tap-ins of his career, after great work from Bowen and Fraizer Campbell.
With eight successful aerial duels, 20% of Hull’s entire successful aerial duel total on Tuesday in Yorkshire came via Irvine.
Forward: Oliver McBurnie (Swansea City) 9.36
This week’s star performer is Swansea City striker, Oliver McBurnie, whose two goals in a 2-2 at the Liberty Stadium put Leeds’ perfect start to the season to an end.
McBurnie’s opener came in the 24th minute where his low shot rounded off a sublime team move from the Swans.
Shortly after the interval, the hosts regained the lead when McBurnie met Martin Olsson’s cross with a looping header over Bailey Peacock-Farrell.
He also won six aerial duels, the most of any Swansea player and having already scored three goals in four matches, could be one of the Swans’ best hopes of earning promotion.
Forward: Andreas Weimann (Bristol City) 8.79
Bristol City also picked up maximum points for the first time this season when they beat Queens Park Rangers 3-0 at Loftus Road.
Summer signing Andreas Weimann scored two of The Robins’ three goals, taking his league tally for the season up to four in as many games.
Weimann’s first came early in the second half when he met Niclas Eliasson’s cross with a diving header.
The Austrian’s second of the night came in the final moments of the game when he stroked home Josh Brownhill’s pass into an empty net.
Forward: Jon Dadi Bodvarsson (Reading) 8.78
Concluding our forward line and the team is Reading’s Icelandic striker, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson.
The Reading striker scored both of The Royals goals in the opening 25 minutes to give them a two-goal advantage, only for it to be squandered thanks to two second-half spot-kicks from Mulgrew.
Bodvarsson won 10 aerial duels in the match, a tally only matched by opposition defender, Darragh Lenihan.
He scored both of his two shots in the match and despite his side not managing to hold their lead, Reading’s point was largely down to the Icelandic’s influence.
