Birmingham and West Brom will be the teams everyone in the Championship will want to beat after the big Midlands rivals dropped out of the Premiership.

They will be automatic favourites to go straight back up to the top flight, though, with two squads packed full of international stars.

It will be hard to look past Steve Bruce's Blues this season should they manage to keep hold of big names such as Jermaine Pennant, David Dunn and Matthew Upson.

Likewise at the Hawthorns, young defender Curtis Davies will have the perfect opportunity to live up to his hot reputation alongside experienced former Tottenham and Charlton man Chris Perry.

Bryan Robson will also hope to keep hold of the ever-reliable Zoltan Gera but knows he pulled off a real coup this summer by picking up experienced striker John Hartson from Celtic.

Sunderland will be the least favoured of the relegated sides after a troubled Premiership campaign, but they will be looking to rebuild this season under the new ownership of Niall Quinn.

However, it will be Leeds who will finally see this as their season to finally to back to where their fans feel they belong.

Having come so close to promotion last season only to be beaten by Watford in the play-off final, Kevin Blackwell will be hoping the same battle-hardened squad can go one-step further this time round.

Preston and Crystal Palace were the other sides which reached last season's play-offs but it will be interesting to see how the summer's managerial merry-go-round has affected them.

North End's Billy Davies made the switch to Derby and the Lancashire side lost a number of key players in the process, notably defenders Claude Davies and Tyrone Mears.

It has been a similar story at Selhurst Park after Iain Dowie left for Charlton, and they have had to say goodbye to both Andy Johnson and Fitz Hall this summer.

Johnson was one of the top scorers in the division last season, but his mantle could be overtaken by hotshot Freddy Eastwood of newcomers Southend.

If he can repeat the goalscoring form which helped Southend gain promotion from League One, he could be one-to-watch in the Championship this season.

Fellow Essex men Colchester United and Barnsley are the other new faces who will be hoping to consolidate in the second tier of English football.

But although these sides are the favourites for relegation, the likes of QPR and Sheffield Wednesday will want to make big improvements on last year's efforts to make sure they steer clear of trouble too.