Five things to look for in EFL with managerial musings and basement battles

When West Bromwich Albion and Preston North End meet, there is a lot to unpack.

This is, after all, a match dating back to the first Premier League season in 1888-89 with two FA Cup meetings in previous years, including the final, one of two matches the Baggies have won against Lancastrians.

Oh, it’s also seven versus four if we move forward to the present day.

For the record, this will be the 123rd time the two sides have met with Albion outscoring, 53 wins to Preston’s 41, but Paul Heckingbottom’s side will go up to Hawthorn as the surprise of the tournament so far.

It wasn’t hard for Deepdale fans to jump into this season after losing relegation on the final day of last season, let alone when Emile Rees, last season’s second-highest goalscorer, left for Bristol City and the team was overhauled.

But here they are in fourth place, having only lost once and with notable victories over Leicester and Ipswich.

“I’m pleased with our performance levels – we’re achieving levels of consistency and no matter who is put in front of us we can give them a game,” Heckingbottom said.

The Preston boss has been there and done that, but in the technical opposite direction will be Ryan Mason, a man still relatively new to management and perhaps facing his first real test.

An unbeaten start with 10 points from their first four games, followed by four points from the next five, culminating in a 3-0 loss to Millwall.

“It’s only been three months since something happened and this is probably our worst performance of the season and we need to try to avoid it again,” Mason told BBC Radio.