Championship expert shares Burnley vs Sheffield Wednesday score prediction with ‘anomaly’ result mooted

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Burnley and Sheffield Wednesday get the weekend’s action in the Championship underway on Friday night, and experts are wondering whether we will finally see the Clarets’ unbeaten run come to an end.

After another hectic week in the Championship, we saw Burnley continue their impressive form and add yet another clean sheet to their phenomenal record.

Scott Parker’s side have now kept 11 clean sheets in a row after their stalemate against Preston North End last weekend — though the spotlight after the game has largely been focused on the incident between Hanniabl Mejbri and Milutin Osmajic.

Meanwhile, Sheffield Wednesday fell to a late defeat against Coventry City at Hillsborough, and will be looking to bounce back against one of the toughest teams in the Championship this weekend.

Can the Owls spring a surprise at Turf Moor on Friday night? Or will it be business as usual for Burnley?

• READ MORE: Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Rohl calls for major Championship rule change after defeat to Coventry City

Experts want Sheffield Wednesday win, but Burnley will be too strong

Discussing the next round of second tier fixtures on the Championship Check-In podcast, Benjamin Bloom and Sam Parkin toyed with the idea of Wednesday achieving the impossible, but simply couldn’t look past another Burnley win.

Bloom said: “The whole world is going to want me to take a 0-0. It can’t be that obvious. 11 games out of 33 that Burnley have drawn 0-0. One in every three. They must have done two in a row at some point.

“But I cannot fathom it, I’m going to go for a Burnley win. I think they’re 23 undefeated to be fair. I’ll back the clean sheet, too. I’ll go Burnley 2-0.”

Parkin, meanwhile, was even more desperate to find a way that the predictable result doesn’t happen, but again, could not imagine a world where Burnley don’t win.

He added: “There’s a part of me that wants to go for that anomaly with an away win for Sheffield Wednesday. I’d love one team to go there, keep a clean sheet, and nick something. I can’t be bold, I’ll go 1-0 for the home win to Burnley.”

It’s worth noting that, if Burnley do keep another clean sheet here, James Trafford will equal the record for clean sheets in a Championship season (24). With another 12 games after this, surely the Burnley man will go on to take the record all for himself before the campaign is over.

• READ MORE: Daniel Farke’s latest setback after Leeds United’s win vs Sunderland speaks volumes about the current state of football

Do Burnley have enough to secure automatic promotion?

As things stand, Burnley are five points behind Sheffield United, and the top two do appear to be running away with this at the moment.

Indeed, most Championship fans believe Leeds United are already promoted after their win over Sunderland on Monday night.

While Burnley are incredibly strong and very hard to beat, they do drop points a little too often with draws — largely because they lack any real firepower.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LeedsLeeds	33	21	9	3	68	20	48	72
2	Sheff UtdSheffield Utd	33	22	6	5	47	23	24	70
3	BurnleyBurnley	33	17	14	2	39	9	30	65
4	SunderlandSunderland	33	17	11	5	50	30	20	62
5	BlackburnBlackburn	33	15	6	12	39	31	8	51
6	West BromWest Brom	33	11	15	7	42	31	11	48

It’s hard to see any of those three teams slipping up dramatically in the final run-in, but with Leeds travelling to Bramall Lane to face Sheffield United next, we could well see a title-deciding game that offers Burnley a glimmer of hope once more.

Both Leeds and the Blades are chasing a record points tally in the Championship this season, and will surely be relentless from here on out. Burnley may have to settle for the play-offs at this rate, but they’re so resilient we wouldn’t bet against them to grind out the wins they need there anyway.