The Championship is the second tier of professional football in England. It is by far the most prestigious league on the planet that does not reside at the peak of its national footballing pyramid. The league has in the past hosted teams that have gone on to win Premier League titles and individual players that have gone on to play for some of the biggest clubs in the world.
Leicester City Could Threaten Championship’s Goal Record
The level of quality at the top of the league is arguably stronger than ever this year. Leicester City are the standout team following their relegation from the Premier League. They have many top-flight calibre talents such as Jamie Vardy and Wilfried Ndidi.
JAMIE VARDY INSIDE 30 SECONDS! pic.twitter.com/mirIMhxNPn
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) September 15, 2023
Leicester’s remarkable quality for a second-tier team means they should be in with a genuine chance of breaking several league records come the end of the 2023/24 campaign.
One of these records is the total goals scored by a team over a single season. This record has a lot of prestige because it highlights how dominant a team really was, suggesting to what extent they deserved to be in the Premier League. In Championship winner odds, Leicester are strong favourites at odds of 8/5. The English Championship predictions also point towards supremacy from the Foxes this year. They are not only expected to win the title but to win it comfortably.
Only the most commanding teams in the league’s history have managed to mount some of the greatest goal tallies over a season. Leicester could well wrap up the title with time to spare this season and be afforded a lack of pressure in order to go full throttle at the goal record. But who are the historic teams that Leicester have to beat?
Manchester City 2001/02
Manchester City’s trajectory since their 2002 Championship success has been remarkable. Their domination of the league over two decades ago perhaps foreshadowed their unprecedented success in the top flight which began over a decade later.
The 2001/02 City team racked up 108 goals in the second tier which remains the outright all-time record. Shaun Goater was their prolific frontman as he alone got 28 of the goals and finished as the league’s top scorer.
Algerian Ali Bernabia also played a large part, providing strong creative help from the midfield that helped City to breeze through the competition.
Fulham 2021/22
Fulham joined the rare club of centurion scorers in the Championship season of 2021/22. They recorded 106 goals and could not match City’s tally, despite striker Aleksandr Mitrovic managing 43 goals alone. The Serbian forward claimed the Golden Boot that year and shattered the record for the most goals over an individual player’s season.
Tom Cairney provided the primary form of chance creation from midfield for the Cottagers as they became one of the most impressive Championship teams of all time.
🎵 YOU TO ME ARE EVERYTHING THE SWEETEST SONG THAT I CAN SING TOM CAIRNEY 🎵 pic.twitter.com/VTgFCWTNPt
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) May 8, 2023
A common trend in the highest-scoring teams is that they often have one standout attacker that betters any individual contribution across the entire league. The presence of a technically excellent creative midfielder is also typical of the Championship record-breaking teams.
The top two highest-scoring teams in the league’s history had both top creative and scoring profiles in their ranks. Leicester have the luxury of two deadly forwards that they can rotate in Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho.
With Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to create from midfield and the ability to share minutes between the attacking duo to maintain freshness, Leicester could well be the next team to join the Championship centurion scorers club – perhaps they could even become the outright leaders.