Championship: Supercomputer updates relegation prediction as West Brom win and Portsmouth thrashed

The Championship’s battle for safety is expected to go right down to the wire as several clubs remain in serious danger of the drop.

West Brom gave their odds of avoiding League One a significant boost on Saturday after they beat Bristol City 1-0, marking consecutive wins for the first time this season.

The Baggies now find themselves four points clear of the drop zone, with interim manager James Morrison finding form where Ryan Mason and Eric Ramsay could not.

The same cannot be said of Leicester City, who remain 22nd after grinding out a goalless draw at Watford on Saturday.

Portsmouth, Blackburn Rovers and Oxford United also remain under serious threat of joining Sheffield Wednesday, with the battle still anyone’s to win.

Supercomputer backs Leicester City and West Brom to survive

At the start of the month, Oxford boosted their survival hopes with three consecutive wins over West Brom, Preston North End and Blackburn.

But failure to beat Charlton Athletic and Southampton has left the U’s 23rd in the Championship and now a strong favourite to go down.

Yet there remain mere singular points separating the teams in the battle, with Portsmouth now in real trouble as well.

John Mousinho’s men are without a win in their last six games, losing five of them and suffering a 6-1 battering at the hands of QPR on Saturday.

But Leicester remain well in the race, having won just once since mid-January, and West Brom and Blackburn certainly do not find themselves out of the woods yet.

Opta‘s supercomputer has made Oxford and Portsmouth the favourites to join Sheffield Wednesday in League One, with their chances of relegation standing at 61.84 per cent and 51.92 per cent, respectively.

Leicester remain a strong contender for the drop, however, with 43.26 per cent, while West Brom’s consecutive wins have seen their chances fall to just 16.98 per cent.

Will the Championship relegation contenders play each other?

There remains several key games between the relegation contenders before the end of the season.

Blackburn and West Brom will face off at the start of April, while Leicester will play Portsmouth later in the month.

The start of next month will also see Portsmouth and Oxford go head-to-head, in what will certainly be a key clash.

On the final day of the season, Blackburn will host Leicester in a potentially relegation-deciding showdown, with more twists and turns expected before each team’s fate is decided.

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