Ipswich Town travel to Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow (3pm) for a huge League One clash. Mark Heath takes a look at the Owls...
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Along with Town, Wednesday were the favourites to win League One before a ball was kicked. It wasn't hard to see why.
Striker Michael Smith and defender Michael Ihiekwe - two of the best players from a Rotherham side promoted to the Championship last term - were among 11 new faces added to an already strong squad over the summer.
After eight games, the Owls sit fourth in the table with five wins, a draw and two defeats.
When you consider that they've already played the likes of promotion rivals Portsmouth (3-3 draw), Charlton (1-0 win), Peterborough (2-0 loss), Bolton (2-0 win) and Barnsley (2-0 loss), that's pretty impressive.
They thumped Morecambe 3-0 on Tuesday night, and put Forest Green Rovers - a side Town edged 2-1 - to the sword earlier in the campaign, thrashing them 5-0.
On paper, their squad is too good for League One. Make no mistake, this is Town's biggest test of the season so far by some distance.
Old faces, new place
As seems to be the case with pretty much every team Town will face this season, there's plenty of ex-Blues in the Owls side to add spice to an already sizzling match-up.
Midfielder Tyreeq Bakinson, who spent the second half of last season on loan in Suffolk and scored a cracker in the season finale against Charlton, signed for the Owls in the summer and has already become a bit of a fan favourite.
Fellow ex-Town loanees in the squad, who are all likely to play on Saturday, are keeper David Stockdale and defenders Mark McGuinness and Dominic Iorfa.
Of Bakinson, who sat out Tuesday's big win at Morecambe, Owls boss Darren Moore said: "He’s absolutely fine. The only reason Tyreeq wasn’t involved was that he's come in, he’s played a lot of football and all the decision was that he looked just a little bit jaded in training, so we whipped him out of the team.
“But that’s to be expected. He’s come in straight away, played a lot of football, a lot of minutes.
“He plays with a lot of tempo to his game and he just looked a little jaded in training so I thought he could do with a rest tonight. But he’s perfectly fine.”
Moore on Town
The popular Owls boss, a man mountain known for being one of the nicest men in football, is certainly relishing this weekend's test.
He said: "It will be a real top-level game on Saturday. They have really set their stall out this season.
"They are a good team. Both teams are in real good form at the moment and we go head-to-head on Saturday.
"It will be wonderful in front of our home crowd. There is plenty of work to do between now and then in terms of getting ready for that game."
Ones to watch
Trying to pick out just one player to watch from the Owls' bristling array of weaponry is a tricky task.
So, have three. You have to start with midfield duo Barry Bannan and George Byers, who will be relishing their battle with Sam Morsy and Lee Evans this weekend.
Bannan absolutely ran the show at Morecambe on Tuesday, laying on two assists, one of which was to Byers from a corner. He leads the Owls with 19 chances created so far this campaign, and will be a man Town have to keep quiet.
Byers, meanwhile, has already scored twice this season and is a real aerial threat.
But the man who leads the team in both goals and assists so far is Josh Windass, who has three strikes and four set-ups to his name.
He scored and had an assist at Morecambe, and can play numerous positions having lined up as a striker and in midfield already this season.
A word too, for the aforementioned Smith. He's only played four games to date due to a thigh injury carried over from his Rotherham days, but he's already scored twice, including at Morecambe on Tuesday.
He'll surely want to make an impression for his new side this weekend.
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