Free football betting tips: Sheffield Wednesday v Brentford - Sky Bet Championship preview & best bets

Recommended bets

2pts Under 2.5 goals at 4/5

1pts Brentford win and under 2.5 goals at 7/2

For details of advised bookmakers and each-way terms, visit our transparent tipping record

Sheffield Wednesday v Brentford

• 19:45 BST on Sky Sports Football
• Match odds: Home 12/5 | Draw 5/2 | Away 11/10

Sheffield Wednesday deserve plenty of credit for the way they've started the Sky Bet Championship season having gone into on -12 points for breaking EFL spending rules.

One defeat in their opening five games has seen them cut the deficit to fourth-from bottom to just seven points, and allowed them to think that escaping the drop zone before 2021 is a very realistic aim.

Brentford will want to get their campaign up and running soon as they seek to shake off the disappointment of play-off final defeat by Fulham only a few short months ago.

Thomas Frank's side have been incredibly inconsistent so far. At home, they swept past Huddersfield and Coventry either side of doing half a job against Preston before conceding four goals without reply in a second-half capitulation.

Away from home their matches have been very similar to what they can expect at Hillsborough on Wednesday night - tight. A 1-0 defeat by Birmingham and a 1-1 draw Millwall shouldn't have shocked anyone given that the Bees were facing pragmatic managers who pride themselves on having defensively disciplined, well-organised teams; just like Garry Monk.

Wednesday have not been involved in a match with more than 2.5 goals this season, that's across eight matches in all competitions. In the Championship, they have conceded three and scored only four times, keeping three clean sheets. They will not make things easy, that is for certain.

Of course no promotion-chasing team is going to lose too much sleep over league position this early in the season, but it is interesting. Before the Tuesday night fixtures, Brentford were down in 10th place, but based on expected goals (xG) they should have been top.

It shows that the Bees are actually playing well, they just failed to take their chances against Birmingham and Millwall, and threw the points away against Preston.

While Monk's team will dig in and be awkward, I don't think they'll be able to keep them out, and Ivan Toney's five goals in his past three league games will go a long way to making Brentford believe they will take the chance if they can carve one out.

I'm happy to take them to win and under 2.5 goals at an excellent 7/2, but because of the profligacy they've shown away from home so far this season I'm going to take the under 2.5 goals option on its own too to a heavier slice.

A scabby Wednesday win or draw would come as no shock.

Score prediction: Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Brentford (Sky Bet odds: 6/1)

Best bets:

• Under 2.5 goals at 4/5
• Brentford win and under 2.5 goals at 7/2

Odds correct at 1800 BST (20/10/20)

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