It’s been a quiet fortnight in the EFL, with the Championship and most of League One not seeing action over the first international break of the season.
Thankfully, we’ve got a full fixture list from Thursday to Monday this week.
Here’s what to look out for, including the return of a very familiar face to the dugout.
Across the top four tiers of English football the list of teams who still have a 100% winning record reads Manchester City, Liverpool and Sunderland.
The Black Cats lead the way in the Championship with four wins from four under new French boss Regis Le Bris, the first time they have ever started a campaign with four successive league victories.
The Wearsiders will look to maintain their momentum when they make the 800-mile round trip to Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth on Saturday.
The Pilgrims are still looking for their first league win of the campaign after two draws and two losses.
It was starting to look like we might not see veteran boss Steve Bruce back on the sidelines of an EFL game again.
Since he started his managerial career at Sheffield United in August 1998, only management addict Neil Warnock has taken charge of more league games in the top four tiers of English football than the former Manchester United captain, with 916 to Bruce’s 901.
Two years on from being sacked by West Brom, Bruce is back after being appointed Blackpool boss last Tuesday.
“What I’ve missed is the everyday enjoyment of working with players and being involved in football,” the 63-year-old told BBC Radio Lancashire earlier this week.
“It’s given me a purpose to get out of bed in the mornings and it’s proven to me that I wasn’t ready for retirement.”
The League One Seasiders are the 12th team of Bruce’s long management career and this is the first time he has managed below the top two divisions since his first spell with Wigan in 2000.
He’ll be hoping to get off to a good start in his latest post with a victory over Exeter at Bloomfield Road on Saturday.
Perhaps the EFL game that will have most interest from a neutral perspective this weekend is Monday’s League One match.
Big-spending Birmingham City welcome Hollywood-backed Wrexham in a game between two of the favourites for third tier promotion.
Blues, co-owned by NFL legend Tom Brady, could give a first league start to big-money signing Jay Stansfield after the striker made a staggering deadline day move from Fulham for a fee reported to be more than £10m.
The Dragons are aiming for a third straight promotion under the ownership of actors Rob McElhenny and Ryan Reynolds and have made a great start to the season with four wins and a draw so far.
There were summer rumours that one of the fixtures between these sides this season could be played in the USA but Reynolds moved quickly to deny they had any intention of doing so.
Who needs Hollywood when you’ve got Small Heath?
There’s no doubt about the stand-out fixture in League Two as Wimbledon host bitter rivals MK Dons.
You probably know the story by now, but here’s a reminder.
AFC Wimbledon were formed in 2002 by Wimbledon FC supporters who were upset by the Football Association’s decision to allow their club to move to Milton Keynes.
The old Wimbledon FC, nicknamed the Dons, relocated to Buckinghamshire in September 2003 and subsequently changed their name to MK Dons in the summer of 2004.
As AFC Wimbledon prepare to host MK Dons over 20 years on the scars are still there.
In September 2017 AFC Wimbledon did not mention MK Dons by name on the front cover of their matchday programme for a game between the sides, leading to charges, which were ultimately dropped, by the English Football League.
The two teams met for the first time in an FA Cup tie back in December 2021 and have now played one another 11 times in league games.
It is MK Dons who hold the upper hand with six wins but AFC Wimbledon fans will be hoping for a repeat of last season’s corresponding fixture which saw scenes of wild jubilation after Ronan Curtis‘ last minute winner.
It’s all been a bit binary for League Two strugglers Morecambe so far this season.
The Shrimps have opened their league campaign with 1-0 defeats by Walsall, Gillingham, Doncaster, Newport and Crewe.
The Lancashire side have set an unwanted English Football League record on the way, as the first team to start the season with the same result on five successive games.
Derek Adams’ men do at least have some way to go before matching the record for most games without scoring in the EFL. Cheltenham went a frankly bewildering 11 games without finding the net at the start of the season in League One last year.
Morecambe will look to break their very specific hoodoo when they host Colchester on Saturday.
You can follow live text action of all the EFL action across this weekend on the BBC Sport website, starting with Harrogate v Doncaster Rovers from 19:45 BST on Thursday.
