Luton Town v Middlesbrough

And so it begins. Today we have the opening match of the season in the Championship, let's see what we can make out of it.

Today, we have a match between a newly promoted side and a side that missed out on the play-offs the last season. Both teams are highly motivated to start the season with a win, too.

In the last five club friendlies, Luton Town had four wins and a loss while Middlesbrough had three wins, a loss, and a draw. The last two games could be the strongest indicator of what will happen today:

Luton Town lost to Norwich 5-1 and will want to respond while Middlesbrough managed a draw in a match against Saint-Etienne.

While the market favors the home side (@2.57) against the visitors (@2.90) my choice here is draw @3.18.

My thinking here is that both sides will want to impress and collect three points. While Middlesbrough has more quality Luton has the home advantage. With that on the table, I can see an exciting game with a lot of mistakes from both sides.

The visitors' quality will cancel out the Luton's home advantage and they'll end up both happy sharing the points today. Possible result: 1-1

Good luck!