EFL Championship PREVIEW 16 Aug 2026: Championship Returns: Watford-Southampton, Burnley-West Ham

Burnley host West Ham United at Turf Moor on Sunday in a meeting of two clubs that went down from the Premier League together last season, both now appointing new direction after relegation. Burnley have handed the job to Nicky Hayen, whose appointment followed a pursuit of Craig Bellamy and whose recent work at Club Brugge and Genk was built on a possession-based approach. West Ham have gone the other way, sticking with Nuno Espirito Santo, who took charge midway through the relegation campaign and confirmed in May he would stay on to try to win promotion.

Both sides have already had a competitive run-out this month. Burnley needed penalties to see off Notts County in the EFL Cup first round after the tie finished 1-1, a result one Championship preview said "will not fill the club's fans with total optimism, yet they still reached the EFL Cup second round on penalties." West Ham's cup outing was more comfortable, a 3-1 win at home to Portsmouth in which new arrival Joel Veltman, signed on a free transfer from Brighton, made a substitute appearance. Jarrod Bowen has stayed at the London Stadium to captain the promotion push despite the departures of Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville. West Ham have won three of their last four league visits to Turf Moor, and the sides' most recent meeting, in February, finished as a West Ham win.

At Vicarage Road, Watford open their season against Southampton, who arrive on minus four points following their disqualification from last season's play-offs. Alessio Dionisi, appointed in June, said the visit of a promotion-fancied Southampton side represented a stern opening test: "Our first match of the Championship season will be against a good team," he said, adding that his group had spent "eight weeks" working together in pre-season and were ready for "the moment" to arrive.

Dionisi's team news is complicated at the back: Mattie Pollock and Kevin Keben are currently his only senior centre-backs, and while former West Ham striker Michail Antonio has been training with the squad, the head coach made clear he would not be involved against Southampton, saying only that "the possibility of him playing in the team right now is out." Southampton, under permanent head coach Tonda Eckert, have lost midfielder Shea Charles to Fulham this summer but have otherwise kept much of the squad that reached the play-offs before their expulsion.