The second round of Championship action starts with the early kick-off at Elland Road as two of the division’s biggest clubs go head-to-head.

Only one of them is being talked about as a serious promotion contender and that is Leeds United. Despite an underwhelming transfer window, they highlighted their strength by picking up an impressive 3-1 win at Bristol City on the opening weekend.

Nottingham Forest started well in their opener at home to West Bromwich Albion but went down to a 2-1 defeat in Sabri Lamouchi’s first competitive game as manager.

Remarkably, Forest have not lost their opening two matches of a season since 1971-72. They have also been a thorn in Leeds’ side over recent years, winning six and drawing five of their last 13 meetings with United coming out on top just twice.

Team news

Leeds have made two signings in the final week of the transfer window, with striker Eddie Nketiah joining from Arsenal to replace the Anderlecht-bound Kemar Roofe and goalkeeper Illan Maslier moving from French side Lorient, both on season-long loan deals.

There are no new injuries for manager Marcelo Bielsa, who has said he is unlikely to make changes to his side. Gerardo Berardi is available again after serving the one-match ban for his red card in last season’s play-off semi-final second leg.

Nottingham Forest took their number of summer additions to 11 with four more signings in the past week and two on deadline day. Right-back Carl Jenkinson could make his debut after joining from Arsenal and Toulouse loanee John Bostock is also available, but defender Chema Rodriguez, brought in from Levante, is not.

Lamouchi has confirmed that Aro Muric remains number one ahead of their other signing, Brice Samba from Caen, despite making significant errors on his debut. Joao Carvalho (ankle), Ryan Yates (knee) and Michael Hefele (achilles) are not available yet, while Tendayi Darikwa (ACL) and Yohan Benalouane (back) face long spells on the sidelines.

Key clashes

The one new Forest signing expected to be handed his debut in West Yorkshire is Carl Jenkinson after Matty Cash, who normally plays further down the wing, filled in at right-back against West Brom last week.

If Leeds go with a similar line-up to their win in Bristol, Jenkinson’s first test for his new club will be going up against Jack Harrison, who has a point to prove in his second season on loan from Manchester City having failed to live up to expectations in his first spell.

Another player from the Etihad Stadium with something to prove is Forest keeper Aro Muric, who was his own worst enemy on his debut with a big error for West Brom’s first goal and fingers were pointed his way again for the second. Having only played seven professional games, plus earning five caps for Kosovo, so far in his career, he needs a squeaky-clean 90 minutes.

What the managers have said

Marcelo Bielsa says he is unlikely to tinker with his Leeds side following their opening win at Bristol City but has high hopes for latest signing Eddie Nketiah.

“We don’t have any injured players. I cannot tell you I will imagine any changes in the players I want to play,” he said.

“Nketiah is a young, important player in English football. Always in the Championship, you have some important players like, for example, last year, [Tammy] Abraham, the striker at Aston Villa, Harry Wilson, the winger who came to Derby County, or Harrison in our case. This player has similar features to these names.”

Opposition manager Lamouchi hopes his players stay confident after a disappointing opening day loss.

He said: “The West Brom result impacted on the players a little bit but I’m asking them to keep their confidence up because I know they can play as well as they did in the first ten minutes.

“We know that Leeds have a fantastic manager who plays with an excellent philosophy and we know that it will be a very intense atmosphere at Elland Road. They have more or less the same squad which reached the play-offs last season so we know how difficult a game it will be.”