Five things to look out for in EFL: Old faces, new places

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Rotting pumpkins and burnt-out sparklers litter the garden, another international break looms and we’re at the end of another of those gruelling ‘nine-point weeks’ in the Championship.

By tea-time on Saturday, almost every EFL side will be a third of the way through their season but the 2025-26 campaign is turning into the most open in memory across all three divisions.

We have friends, and some foes, reunited in the second tier, sack races heating up and subplots galore, and with last weekend’s FA Cup first round games done and dusted it’s back to regular business for League One and Two teams.

John Eustace in the Derby dugoutGetty Images

Rams on the up ahead of Eustace’s Rovers return

Plastic snakes and spray-painted bedsheets at the ready, all eyes on Ewood Park on Saturday lunchtime.

John Eustace quit Blackburn last February to take over at Derby, dropping 16 places in the Championship table and swapping a play-off push for a relegation scrap

Rovers eventually finished seventh under Valerien Ismael, missing the play-offs by two points, while Eustace steered the Rams to 19th, one point clear of the drop.

While this 12:30 GMT kick-off is Eustace’s first return to Ewood, it is not the first reunion, the rock-bottom Rams welcomed some very bitter Rovers fans to Pride Park in March in just Eustace’s fourth match in charge and went 2-0 up inside seven minutes on their way to a 2-1 win, his first at the club after starting with three straight defeats.

Former Rovers players Andi Weimann, Danny Baath and skipper Lewis Travis have followed Eustace to Pride Park to add some more spice to this occasion.

Despite the subplots, the fixture also pits two of the division’s in-form sides against one another.

Derby’s 2-1 win over Hull City on Tuesday was a fourth straight win, while Rovers’ 1-0 success at Bristol City the same evening was their third in succession.

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Robins flying with only Sky Blues ahead

Friday marks one year to the day since Mark Robins was sacked by Coventry to end a seven-and-a-half year stay at the Sky Blues, having steered them to within a penalty shootout of promotion to the Premier League the previous year.

Frank Lampard was named City boss three weeks later while Robins joined the Potters in January, and the rest, as they say, is history.

On Saturday, the two clubs meet with Coventry four points clear at the top after a blistering start to the season, though their unbeaten run was ended at Wrexham last week before they bounced back to come from behind and beat Sheffield United on Tuesday.

Three straight wins for Stoke, with nine goals scored and just one conceded, took them into second ahead of the weekend clash of the meanest defence in the division, with just nine goals conceded by Stoke in 14 games, against the leading scorers, with Coventry netting an astonishing 39 goals.

There was a sting in the tail for Robins on his first return to the CBS Arena last March when Sam Gallagher’s double looked to have ensured the Potters a late 2-2 draw, only for Bobby Thomas to win it for Coventry in the 97th minute.

What we’d give for more drama like that on Saturday.

There’s also another clash of promotion-chasers on Saturday which might have crept under the radar a bit.

Despite an injury crisis at Deepdale, a 2-1 win over Swansea on Wednesday was Preston’s third straight victory and took them fourth ahead of their 12:30 GMT trip to Millwall, a point back in fifth after a 4-0 drubbing at Birmingham on Tuesday night.

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Up, up and away

Quiz time. Of the 62 teams who both finished last season and started this one in the EFL, who has won the most points in 2025 so far?

Surely it’s Coventry? Nope, not even close. It must be Bradford then? No. Wrexham? Afraid not.

Birmingham’s back-to-back 4-0 home wins this past week took them up to 83 points and counting this year.

League One leaders Stockport are second with 78 while it’s little old Charlton who are third, a further three points back, after their last-gasp win over West Brom at The Valley on Tuesday.

In a world where Sunderland have bounced straight from the Championship play-offs into the top four of the Premier League, is it really beyond the imagination to expect newly-promoted League One sides to be competing at the top of the second-tier?

There was a bit of heat on Chris Davies less than a fortnight ago after a meek 1-0 defeat at Bristol City, a fourth defeat in five away games without scoring.

However they head to Middlesbrough on Saturday brimming with confidence sat just two points outside the play-off places, and having scored as many goals in the past two matches as they did in the previous 11 combined in all competitions.

The side in sixth they are chasing? That would be Charlton, who rather edged through the nervy League One play-offs last year but have taken to the Championship like a, erm, Addick to water, with just three defeats in their opening 14 matches and the second best defence in the league with just 11 conceded.

That record will be tested on Saturday (15:00 GMT) as Nathan Jones heads back to his homeland to visit Wrexham, a club he previously referred to as “a circus” before backing down a bit, not that Phil Parkinson was buying it.

His Red Dragons have also found their feet following promotion, losing just one of their past eight games and going unbeaten in four at home, inflicting a first defeat on leaders Coventry last time out at the Racecourse to help them sit five points outside the play-offs themselves.

Tom Cleverley looks pensive on the touchlineRex Features

Sack race or promotion race?

You can throw your cap over half a dozen sides at the top of League One with three points separating the top six sides going into the weekend, but those names are not necessarily the ones you might expect to be leading the fight for promotion.

Cardiff are the only team relegated from the Championship to be in the thick of things, with Luton floundering in 10th and with Jack Wilshere freshly at the helm ahead of their trip to fellow Hatters Stockport, who are top of the pile.

Before the season not many would have picked Peterborough and Blackpool to be in the bottom half, let alone make up the bottom two at this stage, while Reading were fifth-bottom and like the previous two also sacked their manager, swapping Noel Hunt for Leam Richardson in an attempt to boost their fortunes, it certainly began well as the Royals beat Stevenage 1-0 on Thursday night.

Another two sides expected to challenge for promotion were Huddersfield and newly-relegated Plymouth, who meet on Saturday (15:00 GMT) off the back of three straight defeats each, with Lee Grant’s Terriers already six points off the play-off pace and Tom Cleverley’s Greens third-bottom with nine defeats in their opening 14 games.

Walsall boss Mat Sadler scratches his headGetty Images

Saddle up for another wild weekend

Death… taxes… League Two being utterly bonkers.

Just five points separate the top 13 sides in the fourth tier and you might forgive Walsall fans for feeling a spot of deja vu.

After a run of 19 points from seven games took them top of the table, where they were for the majority of last season before capitulating, Mat Sadler’s men have taken a single point from their past three games against Crawley, Barrow and Cheltenham, all struggling in or near the relegation zone at the time.

The Saddlers head to rock-bottom Newport on Saturday (15:00 GMT) and, should they lose for a third straight game, could find themselves as low seventh by the full-time whistle of Cheltenham v Notts County on Monday night.

You can follow the entire EFL programme as it happens on the BBC Sport website and app, starting with live text coverage of Watford v Bristol City on Friday (20:00 GMT).

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Kelly Osbourne ‘cries eyes out’ on son’s birthday over dad Ozzy

Kelly Osbourne took to social media to share sweet memories of her late dad, Ozzy Osbourne, with her son Sidney as he turned three years old

Kelly Osbourne has made sure her late dad Ozzy is still very much a part of family life as she celebrates her son’s third birthday. It’s the first birthday Sidney has had since his grandfather’s death in July.

The Black Sabbath icon died of heart failure on July 22 in Buckinghamshire. He was 76. It came two weeks after he had performed at his farewell concert with his bandmates and an array of other huge stars at his beloved Villa Park in Birmingham.

To mark her son’s big day, Kelly, 41, has shared a number of sweet snaps of the two together to mark the occasion. Taking to Instagram on Thursday, the singer and reality TV star showed shots of Ozzy looking happier than ever alongside his grandson.

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One image showed the War Pigs singing playing with Sidney in a swimming pool outside. Another also showed Sharon’s connection as the trio cuddled up in bed.

Kelly captioned the post with a sweet nod to her dad, saying he will be “watching down” on the family. She wrote: “I can’t believe it’s been 3 years already.

“I cried my eyes out making this reel. So much has happened in the most magical ways in the last three years.”

Kelly went on: “‘Happy birthday my little angel I know what Papa is watching down on you so proud of the little man that you are becoming! YOU ARE 3!!!!!!!!! I love you I love you I love you.”

She later shared clips of Sidney enjoying his celebrations with huge displays and balloons. The youngster was treated to a variety of different dinosaur toys as he opened up his presents with glee in matching pyjamas with his mum.

And in another “3rd birthday photo dump” the tot is seen singing while later meeting super heroes. They also went feed goats while Kelly showed off her face paint and dress up.

Just days before Sidney’s celebration, Kelly remembered her dad as she marked her own birthday. In a sentimental upload, she said: “Tomorrow is going to be a first for me.

“The first birthday without my dad. Every year, the thing I look [forward] to the most was spending the day with him and the cards he would write me.

“Knowing that I will never get one again shatters my heart. Here are just a few of them. They were always short, simple but said everything I needed to hear. I love you, Daddy, tomorrow will suck without you.”

In one card, Ozzy had penned: “To Kelly, I love you with all my heart,” while in another he sweetly wrote: “Dearest Kelly, I just want to say that I love and miss you every second of the day.” In every one of them he signed off as “daddy”.

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Kelly often posted her and her son’s bond with her late dad and has been open about her feelings since his passing.

Taylor Swift’s savage words after brutal 27-second phone call

Taylor Swift is set to walk down the aisle to marry fiancé Travis Kelce, but her love life has been a bit of rollercoaster until now and includes a savage breakup

She may be set to marry the man of her dreams, but Taylor’s slow path to Travis has been notoriously bumpy. As reflected in her song lyrics, she has frequently been broken-hearted and once called herself “ridiculously stupid” when it comes to falling in love. “So much of her music has been about past relationships,” says PR and communications expert Lynn Carratt. “Her songs have traced her emotional journey in real time, and fans have always bought into that. Her relationships are embedded in her music for listeners to decode, and rather than being a celebrity who is forever talking about her love life in the public eye, she instead creates and controls her own narrative around it.”

Just a few weeks before Taylor and Travis got together, she split from The 1975 rocker Matty Healy, who she first met almost a decade earlier at one of his gigs. They were repeatedly linked over the years, but the rumours finally became a reality in May 2023 when Cheshire-born Matty attended three of Taylor’s Eras shows in Nashville. On one occasion, he was seen clutching a hand to his heart as she performed, and they were later seen holding hands while out for dinner with Taylor’s long-term collaborator Jack Antonoff. They were snapped out together in New York too, and Matty also attended an Eras show in Philadelphia with Taylor’s dad Scott.

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But while the fling reportedly ended after just a month, it was still said to have been intense, and Taylor sang about Matty on her 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department. In fact, he was said to have inspired its name, with the title track concerning his love of typewriters. “You left your typewriter at my apartment / Straight from the Tortured Poets Department,” she sang. Meanwhile, the track Loml was also thought to have been about Matty, with lines like, “It was legendary / It was momentary / It was unnecessary / Should’ve let it stay buried.”

Prior to Matty, Taylor’s six-year romance with British actor Joe Alwyn was her longest to date. It was thought they first met at the Met Gala in 2016, but they kept things strictly off-radar, with Taylor once saying, “Our relationship isn’t up for discussion.” In a diary entry that accompanied her 2019 album Lover , she wrote of their time “hiding out in London”, adding, “We have been together and no one has found out for three months now.”

The album included the song London Boy , in which she sang about cosy trips to Camden Market and Soho, while she confirmed to fans that earlier song Gorgeous was also about the Conversations W ith Friends star. Joe even made a fleeting appearance in Taylor’s Miss Americana documentary, and he co-wrote the songs Exile and Betty on her album Folklore , under the pseudonym of William Bowery.

After the pair spent much of lockdown in the capital together, rumours of an engagement swirled, and there were suggestions they had tied the knot when she wore a wedding gown in her video for Willow . But in April 2023, the pair split, with friends blaming “differences in their personalities” as well as the intense pressures of fame.

Unsurprisingly, Joe’s presence was felt on The Tortured Poets Department , with songs like So Long, London referencing Taylor’s pain at the end of their time together. “The fact Taylor writes about relationships in her music makes it so relatable,” says author Annie Zaleski, who explored the meaning of more than 250 tracks in her book, Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind The Songs .

“She’s been very honest and vulnerable about where she’s at, and fans can say, ‘I’ve gone through that as well.’ Her music is very human and empathetic, and shows how life can be difficult. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, even for Taylor.”

Before dating Joe, Taylor had a 15-month relationship with Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, but their amicable split in June 2016 soured when she moved on with the actor Tom Hiddleston. A fight over songwriting credits saw Calvin claim Taylor and her team were trying to “make him look bad”, and her subsequent song Getaway Car was seen as a revenge shot, with lines like “I wanted to leave him / I needed a reason.”

Her whirlwind fling with Marvel star Tom then sparked a media frenzy, but after he famously wore an ‘I HEART TS’ T-shirt on the beach, Taylor felt it had all become too public and #HiddleSwift was officially over. The relationship was also shrouded in claims it had been a PR stunt, but that was refuted. “Of course it was real,” Tom said in response to the doubters. “We had the best time.”

Another much-hyped but short-lived romance came with former One Direction singer Harry Styles, who Taylor first met at the 2012 Kid’s Choice Awards. The pair were affectionately dubbed ‘Haylor’ by fans, but after around a month of dating it ended in early 2013, with Taylor admitting her subsequent song Style was about “one of those relationships that’s always a bit off”. But the pair seemed on good terms as they bumped into each other at the 2021 Grammys, and Harry once said of their time together, “It was a learning experience for sure.”

Of course, Taylor’s most famous breakup anthem is We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together , and the track was widely assumed to concern her on-off dalliance with actor Jake Gyllenhaal. He reportedly broke Taylor’s heart just as she turned 21. When they split in 2010 it gave rise to the mysterious red scarf in her song All Too Well – widely viewed as an emblem of devastating lost love.

Taylor also had other brief romances with Twilight actor Taylor Lautner and musician John Mayer, while she once revealed that singer Joe Jonas dumped her over the phone after three months of dating in 2008. “I looked at the call log – it was like 27 seconds. That’s got to be a record,” she said. That split resulted in several songs on her album Fearless , including Forever & Always, with savage lyrics that seemed to refer to Joe as a “scared little boy”.

Meanwhile, Travis has had some celebrity relationships of his own, with one former flame Maya Benberry winning his heart on his US reality show Catching Kelce . In the series, 50 contestants from across the US vied to snare Travis, and he and Maya dated briefly in 2016 before going their separate ways. He also had an on-off romance with sports journalist and influencer Kayla Nicole for several years, but they broke up for good in May 2022. Travis was then linked to Access Hollywood presenter Zuri Hall in 2023, but their relationship was never confirmed.

But while Taylor and Travis have found happiness together, it’s safe to assume the singer won’t stop writing sad songs in future. “Being happy brings different sources of melancholy,” adds Annie. “She’s often written about the pain of growing up and her own insecurities, and I think she will still want her music to convey the full range of human experience.”

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Trump expects int’l stabilisation force to be on ground in Gaza ‘very soon’

United States President Donald Trump has said he expects a US-coordinated international stabilisation force to be on the ground in Gaza “very soon” as part of his post-war plan for the enclave, which is still suffering a full-blown humanitarian crisis amid continued Israeli bombing.

“It’s going to be very soon. And Gaza is working out very well,” said the president on Thursday, adding that an alliance of “very powerful countries” had volunteered to intervene if any problems arose with the Palestinian armed group Hamas, which has not yet confirmed it will disarm.

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The president’s projection came as the United Nations Security Council prepares to start negotiations to authorise a two-year mandate for a transitional governance body and the stabilisation force, which is supposed to protect civilians, secure border areas and train Palestinian police.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that any stabilisation force must have “full international legitimacy” to support Palestinians in Gaza.

A senior US government official told the Reuters news agency that negotiations were expected to start on Thursday, following his country’s circulation of the draft resolution to 10 elected UNSC members and several regional partners this week.

The resolution, which was reportedly seen by Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, would permit a stabilisation force of 20,000 troops to “use all necessary measures” to carry out its mandate, meaning it will be allowed to deploy force, according to Reuters.

Hamas has not said whether it will demilitarise, a key tenet of Trump’s 20-point plan, but part of the stabilisation force’s task would be to destroy its capacities and “offensive infrastructure” and to prevent it from rebuilding.

Trump’s plan helped lead to a captive release deal and a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the armed group on 10 October, which the former has repeatedly breached with its repeated bombing and heavy restrictions on aid to the enclave.

Turkiye played a crucial role in the negotiations by encouraging Hamas to accept the peace plan and rallying support for the stabilisation force by hosting foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan, and Indonesia in Istanbul this week.

Turkiye has repeatedly condemned Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and demanded at the top-level meeting that Israel stop violating the truce and allow crucial humanitarian aid to enter the embattled Palestinian territory.

But Israeli officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar – are adamant that their country will not accept a Turkish presence in Gaza.

Israel appears to have its own narrative on the stabilisation force. During a joint news conference with Trump back in September, Netanyahu told reporters that “Israel will retain security responsibility, including a security perimeter, for the foreseeable future” in Gaza.

Why are scientists rushing to study a comet from deep space?

Astrophysicists are scrambling to study an ancient comet from another star system that entered the solar system this year, and which has already swung past Mars.

Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the comet poses no threat to Earth or its neighbouring planets, but has aroused immense interest as space agencies train their sights on what is only one of three interstellar objects detected by scientists.

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Here is what we know about the object that is intriguing scientists:

A diagram released by NASA on July 2, 2025 shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system [NASA/JPL-Caltech via Reuters]

What is the 3I/ATLAS?

The comet is only the third interstellar object ever recorded to pass through Earth’s solar system from another star. Comets are celestial bodies made of ice, dust and gas which orbit the sun. They are considered remnants from when the solar system formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago.

3I/ATLAS was first discovered in July by scientist Larry Dennau of the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope team, located in Rio Hurtado, Chile. The project is funded by NASA and is operated by researchers at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy.

Before this, 1I/’Oumuamua, a rocky, cigar-shaped object, was discovered by Canada’s Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, in October 2017.

In August 2019, 2I/Borisov, a “rogue comet” – one that is not bound by gravity to any particular star system, so is travelling freely through space – was discovered by the Crimean astronomer and telescope maker Gennadiy Borisov at the MARGO Observatory in Crimea.

Comets are typically named after their human or station founders. The “I” in their names stands for “interstellar”, meaning that it has originated from another solar system.

Where is 3I/ATLAS travelling?

It zipped past Mars earlier in October, coming within 29 million km (18 million miles) of the red planet at a breakneck speed of 310,000km/h (193,000mph).

The comet made its closest approach to the sun at the end of October and is expected to pass closest to Earth in December, when it will be about 270 million km (170 million miles) away, according to NASA. It will still be farther from Earth than the sun, which is 150 million km (93 million miles) away.

Who is studying the comet?

A host of spacecraft and other assets have already set eyes on the celestial visitor, particularly as its current trajectory has hidden it behind the sun, making it untrackable from Earth for now. NASA notes that it will reappear on the other side of the sun by early December 2025.

Scientists are eager to understand more about the comet’s actual size and physical properties.

Aside from the Hubble telescope, other space assets owned by NASA will track, or are already tracking, the comet and relaying information about it, including:

  • The Perseverance and Curiosity Mars rovers, which have been exploring Mars since 2021.
  • The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, designed to search for water on Mars.
  • The Europa Clipper mission, a space probe bound for Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, launched on October 14, 2024.
  • The Lucy and Psyche missions, two robotic spacecraft launched in 2017 to visit eight different asteroids which share Jupiter’s orbit around the sun.
  • The Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018 to make observations of the sun’s outer corona.
  • The March 2025-launched Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission, which is studying the sun’s outermost atmosphere. NASA describes the mission as “four suitcase-sized spacecraft” which “are now spread out along the planet’s day-night boundary, giving the mission a continuous, unobstructed view” of the sun.
  • The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), run by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched in 1995 and, according to the project, now orbits the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1, about 1.5 million km from Earth, from where it has a continuous view.

Separately, the ESA’s Juice spacecraft, launched in 2023 and heading to Jupiter and its icy moons, will also keep an eye on the zipping interloper throughout November.

What has been discovered so far?

Using these multiple resources, researchers have been able to capture clear enough images of the object to determine that the object is indeed a comet, as indicated by the hyperbolic shape of its orbital path, that is, the fact that the object does not follow a closed orbital path around the sun, according to NASA.

The NASA Hubble Space Telescope first captured images in July showing that the comet has a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off its solid, icy nucleus, according to the agency.

Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope put the comet’s nucleus at no more than 5.6 km (3.5 miles) across. It could be as small as 440 metres (1,444 feet), according to NASA.

China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, enters military service

China’s latest aircraft carrier has officially entered service after extensive sea trials, according to Chinese state media, with experts saying the ship will help the world’s largest navy expand Beijing’s sphere of influence farther beyond its own waters.

President Xi Jinping boarded the carrier Fujian – named after the Chinese province facing Taiwan – for an inspection tour in the city of Sanya in southern Hainan province on Wednesday, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.

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More than 2,000 representatives from China’s navy and aircraft carrier construction units attended the commissioning and flag-presenting ceremony, according to state media.

The Fujian is China’s third aircraft carrier, but its first indigenously designed and built model.

The vessel looks set to be a far more effective naval weapon than China’s first two Russian-designed carriers, Liaoning and Shandong, which are smaller and rely on ramps to launch aircraft.

With a flat flight deck and electromagnetic catapults for take-offs – only found elsewhere on the latest United States Navy Ford-class carriers – the Fujian will be able to carry significantly more and heavier-armed jet fighters.

During the Fujian’s sea trials, the Chinese navy launched its new carrier version of the J-35 stealth fighter and an early-warning aircraft, the KJ-600, as well as a variant of its established J-15 fighter jet.

The ability to carry its own reconnaissance aircraft also means that, unlike the Liaoning and Shandong, the Fujian will not be operating blind when out of the range of land-based support, allowing it to operate its most advanced aircraft further afield.

It remains to be seen how quickly the Fujian will become combat-ready, but the vessel is perhaps the most visible example yet of President Xi’s deep overhaul and rapid expansion of China’s military.

The Chinese leader has previously said his goal is for China to have a modernised military force by 2035 and a “world-class” force to rival the US by 2050. With the Fujian, Beijing has taken another significant step towards closing that gap.

Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Associated Press news agency that aircraft “carriers are key to Chinese leadership’s vision of China as a great power with a blue-water navy”.

While China’s navy wishes to dominate the waters of the South China Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea – the so-called First Island Chain around Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines – it also seeks to challenge US dominance deeper into the Pacific, according to Poling.