Exclusive: Don Goodman 'shocked' at something that is happening at Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton | OneFootball

Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman spoke exclusively to Football League World about what has shocked him with Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton

The early stages of the 2025/26 EFL Championship campaign have remained very much in keeping with the division's famed unpredictability and penchant for upsetting the odds, with a number of twists and turns emerging to date.

Surprise packages, of course, are no unfamiliar theme in English football's second-tier, and we invariably see sides who may have held modest pre-season ambitions burst out of the blocks and enjoy strong starts before either fading away or, rather impressively, sustaining such efforts.

What's also common, however, is the increasing disparity between newly-relegated sides in receipt of lucrative, mandated three-year parachute payments from the Premier League, which many supporters across the country have urged to be addressed, and everybody else. Last season, Burnley were the only newly-relegated side to go straight back up as Sheffield United lost out in the play-off final and Luton Town, remarkably, suffered consecutive relegations to League One.

The year before that, Leicester City and Southampton returned at the first attempt and, in 2022/23, it was a similar story with Burnley and Sheffield United. However, a different script could just be writing itself this term, with all three freshly-relegated outfits — Ipswich Town, Leicester and Southampton — struggling to get going in the early stages of the season despite being strongly tipped for automatic promotion contention and, perhaps with the exception of the Foxes, sparing little expense in the summer transfer window to realise those ambitions.

At the time of writing, Leicester, who were backed to be the least-competitive of the trio amid a more quiet summer and an impending points deduction, have been in the strongest form but are still pulling up no trees as they sit in ninth position, behind newly-promoted Charlton Athletic and relegation-tipped Hull City.

Ipswich, just about everybody's favourite for promotion, find themselves down in 14th after exerting significant squad upheaval but not yet getting the consistency to force their way up the table, and Southampton are positioned in 18th with two wins from 11 matches - only four points above the relegation zone - with pressure unsurprisingly mounting on head coach Will Still.

Don Goodman reveals EFL Championship shock at what's happening with Leicester City, Ipswich Town, Southampton

It's a long old campaign, of course, and the starts which Ipswich and Southampton in particular have endured is not a reflection of where they may finish their respective seasons. But that takes little away from the shock factor, and, at this stage of the season, it's common practice for at least one of the newly-relegated sides out of the top-flight to establish their authority and emerge as sure-fire promotion contenders.

Sky Sports pundit and EFL expert Don Goodman subscribes to this school of thought, and shared his shock at the state of play with the trio exclusively with Football League World.

Goodman, like many, has argued that Ipswich and Southampton, who have both been dominant in many matches, are underperforming from a statistical perspective, which does suggest that their fortunes may be subject to change.

But he has also hailed the factor that their underperformance has opened the promotion door wide open this term, with a number of lesser-fancied sides starting to cement their promotion bids.

"I am shocked, absolutely, as I think most people would be that Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton have found it so difficult to get going," Goodman explained to FLW.

"Look, we're a quarter of the way through the season. Sometimes it can take a few games to get up to speed at the start of a new season, but we're well into the season now and the table is taking shape.

"Ironically, Leicester are currently the highest of those three in ninth, and they've probably performed the worst in terms of actual performance levels. When you look at the data, Ipswich and Southampton should really be winning a lot more games than they've managed based on the chances they've created for themselves and the opportunities that they've missed.

"It's been a bit of a surprise, but I do think it's added to the excitement of the Championship in that it is wide open. At the minute, Coventry and Middlesbrough are first and second — that's not by fluke, that's by being the best teams so far this season, certainly in terms of consistency.

Ipswich Town, Leicester City, Southampton situations have blown promotion door wide open

Those not affiliated with Ipswich, Leicester or Southampton are rather happy to observe the current situation, which is, at present, offering a game-changer to the typical make-up of the ever-hotly-contested Championship promotion race.

Usually dominated by sides in receipt of parachute payments, none of the current top-six are. Coventry and Middlesbrough finished fifth and ninth last season, but are now first and second, with the Sky Blues looking more-than-capable of going all the way under Frank Lampard.

It may prove much more difficult for the likes of Millwall, Bristol City, Charlton and Stoke to retain their presences in the top-six as the season toils on, but equally, none of those sides are showing any signs of slowing down and the newly-relegated signs are offering little indication of swift improvement.

For as long as that continues, they are opening the door for some almighty Championship shocks to take place come May.