Brentford have one of the easiest set of opening six fixtures in the entire Football League - on paper at least.

The Bees will start the season with games against Sheffield United, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City, Ipswich, Wolves and Aston Villa.

Those teams had an average finishing league position of 17.3 between them last season.

That’s when giving the teams who were promoted finishing league positions of 22nd, 23rd and 24th and the ones who came down finishing positions of 1st, 2nd and 3rd, which would include the Blades who are many people's tip to do well this season.

Only one other team in either the Championship, League One or League Two has opponents with a lower average finishing position from last season - Middlesbrough (18.7).

Dean Smith

Brentford are followed jointly by Wigan, Stevenage and Exeter (17.2) and then Wycombe and Millwall (16.7).

Sticking inside the Championship, Burton Albion have the toughest start to the season.

The Brewers kick off their 2017/18 campaign with games against Cardiff, Hull, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds.

Those teams have an average finishing position of 7.5 when giving Hull, who finished 18th in the Premier League, a finishing position of 1st and 19th placed Middlesbrough one of 2nd.