Pick of the stats: Preston North End v Oxford United — and more

The Championship weekend gets under way at Deepdale on Friday night (20:00 GMT) as Oxford United head to Preston aiming to leap out of the relegation zone.

The second-bottom U's have been in the bottom three for all but three days since early December, but last Saturday's 2-1 win over West Brom means another three points at North End would see them leapfrog Leicester and Albion, dragging the Baggies into the drop-zone on goal difference ahead of Saturday's matches.

The Lilywhites lost 2-0 at home to Millwall on Saturday and have dropped eight points below the play-off places of the back of a run of one win in nine league games, which have earned them just six points and leaves them 11th, with the prospect of dropping into the bottom half for the first time this season if results don't go their way.

• Preston North End are looking to complete only their second ever league double over Oxford United, doing so in the 1999/00 campaign.
• Oxford have won one of their past five league games against Preston (D1 L3), a 3-1 home win in August 2024 under Des Buckingham.
• Preston have lost three home Championship matches in 2026 so far (W2 D1), only one fewer than they lost throughout the entirety of 2025 at Deepdale (W7 D11 L4).
• Oxford United won their most recent league game, beating West Bromwich Albion 2-1, but they haven't had consecutive Championship wins since January 2025 – the second win of which was against Luton Town, then managed by Matt Bloomfield.
• Jamie Donley has been involved in eight goals in his past 10 EFL starts (2 goals, 6 assists), assisting on his first start for Oxford in their 2-1 win over West Brom last time out.

We asked for your thoughts after Wednesday's Premier League game between Aston Villa and Chelsea.

Here are some of your comments:

Villa fans

Peter: Villa are in free fall. This is a worrying slide in form and looking like a top 5 finish is going to evade them. Injuries to key players have hurt us but Emery's stubbornness to change and stick with with out of form players is not helping.

Ian: Its been a good season up untill the last few games, there still in a champions league position.The question for Villa is can they pull together & bounce back ?

Mike: Another woeful performance full of misplaced passes and disjointed build up play. Really frustrating to see how easily we let them in behind our back four. For the third game running I felt the team we finished with should have been the team we started with. Emery really needs to fix this before our season fizzles out.

Kirk: So bored of watching Villa pass it around the defence, As a Villa fan I switched at half time to watch Newcastle's game, Wow what a difference an attack minded approach can give a team. Safe to say I didn't return for the 2nd half. Looks to me like Emery wants out.

Phillip: I don't think it was a bad Villa performance- we were on the wrong side of some tight decisions and were beaten by the better team on the night.

Rob: We've finally run out of gas - both as a team and as individuals. I think some players have reached their ceiling and need to be moved on so everyone can start fresh and unfortunately, hoping Ollie is going to play himself into form isn't going to happen. For everyone moaning how Arsenal parked the bus last night, that might not be a bad strategy at the moment if we go one-up as we did, especially while we wait for our midfield to return.

Chelsea fans

Ahmed: Traditionally Chelsea are always ahead of Villa unless otherwise the game isn't by their side. Statistically Chelsea always dominates Villa especially a t the Park, villa couldn't hold on after 1 goal up, Chelsea capitalised in the dominance game with one of the best performance in this campaign.

Congratulations to JP for your hat-trick, keep thriving.

Brendan: A better performance all round however still too much passing across the back four and too much involvement of our goalkeeper (s). We very nearly gifted them another goalkeeping error. We need to be more disciplined at the back and also be doing a lot more off the ball to create more forward passing opportunities. A very long way still to go.

Phil: Excellent all round performance after going a goal behind. Not comfortable with Fofana and would prefer to see Sarr play. Best game in a Chelsea shirt from both Pedro and Garnacho. We need to keep this up for the rest of the season

James: Just when I thought form was dipping they go and produce a performance like that! Pedro has proven a very astute signing, and if Chelsea can maintain this level top 4 is realistic.

Keith: A good away win and hopefully we can build on it, Garnacho, Hato and João Pedro excellent, but we've got big problems with our keeper's playing out from the back show's they are not up to it.

The Sporting News brings you the rules for the World Baseball Classic, from innings to pitch clock.