Championship round-up: Schumacher leaves Stoke, Cardiff struggle again
There were big wins for Burnley and Blackburn as well as West Brom who continued their unbeaten run to go top of the table, while newly promoted Derby and Oxford picked up another victory each.
On the other side of the coin, Sunderland suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of Wayne Rooney's Plymouth - who in turn earned their first win of the campaign, on top of poor defeats for both Cardiff and Stoke.
Here in our weekly feature, Flashscore takes a look at all the major talking points from one of the most entertaining divisions in Europe.
Stoke say goodbye to Schumacher
The Championship had its second managerial casualty of the season on Monday morning as Stoke parted ways with Steven Schumacher.
The Potters suffered their third loss of the season at the hands of newly promoted Oxford on Saturday, falling to a 1-0 defeat after an excellent move was finished off by Idris El Mizouni.
While the club's official words were that Schumacher had 'left his position' the quotes from Sporting Director Jonathan Walters suggest the manager had been sacked; "My role as Sporting Director is to make tough decisions that serve the long-term interests of Stoke City.
“After ongoing discussions with John Coates (club chairman), we feel the time is right for a change in direction to bring success to the club."
What's strange about the 'sacking', though, is that Stoke haven't been outlandishly poor nor have they given much time for Schumacher to get settled with a new core of players.
The Potters have beaten Coventry and Plymouth in the league and thrashed Middlesbrough 5-0 in the EFL Cup, and aside from the Oxford game both of their other losses have been pretty acceptable - a 2-1 defeat to top-of-the-league West Brom and a 3-0 loss to fifth-placed Watford.
Couple that with another insane turnover of players in the summer (13 departures, 10 arrivals), and it seems a strange decision to change managers at this point, at least from the outside looking in.
When you also consider that Schumacher did what was asked of him upon arriving in December last season by keeping Stoke in the league, it does seem a bizarre turn of events.
Perhaps something behind the scenes has led to his departure as is often the case in the crazy division that is the Championship.
Cardiff's struggles continue
While the departure of Schumacher shocked plenty of Championship fans, it wouldn't be such a surprise to see Cardiff's Erol Bulut follow suit in the coming days or weeks.
The Blue Birds are without a win in their opening five league games and sit bottom of the table having scored just once.
A trip to Pride Park against newly promoted Derby should have been the perfect opportunity for Cardiff to launch their campaign but another poor performance saw them fall to a 1-0 defeat and raised plenty of questions over the manager's future.
Those questions were unfortunately not answered as Bulut refused to do any interviews after the match and handed his media duties over to assistant coach Omer Riza, a bit like you would on the computer game Football Manager after a frustrating loss.
For a little context, Bulut was serving a touchline ban but still present at the stadium and the suspension had no impact on any post-match media duties.
The defeat marked Cardiff's worst start to a season for 35 years and leaves huge doubts over the future of their manager.
Delight for Plymouth and Rooney
From one team's worst start in decades to another's best start in nearly a century, Sunderland went into the weekend top of the league with a perfect record of four wins from four games ready to face Wayne Rooney's Plymouth, who were still hunting for their first league triumph of the season.
That put the Black Cats as firm favourites heading into the match, despite Rooney's best efforts to unnerve his opposition in the build-up.
Speaking ahead of the match, Plymouth's manager said "They're (Sunderland) energetic, but a team you can get at. They've been clinical, had four chances against Sheffield Wednesday and scored four goals.
"We have to use our qualities to beat them which we can do."
Rooney's quotes caused a bit of a stir on social media, particularly as there wasn't much evidence to back them up from the four fixtures before the international break.
Of course, as is weirdly always the way in football, underdogs Plymouth put three past what was the best defence in the league before the match, and sealed a dramatic 3-2 win in added time - proving the five-time Premier League winner to be right, and pretty much everyone else to be wrong.
The victory lifted Plymouth away from the relegation zone and offers supporters a much-needed renewed sense of hope for the campaign ahead, while also giving second thoughts to plenty of Rooney's doubters.
Ohashi double sinks Bristol City
One of the top signings of the summer transfer window has been Blackburn's Yuki Ohashi, who has netted four goals in his first five Championship games after arriving from J-League side Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
The Japanese forward was on target again in Rovers' 3-0 win over Bristol City, scoring two excellent curling efforts during the second half to ensure his side continued their unbeaten start to the campaign.
There were a few good goals scored over the weekend, including Alex Mowatt's free-kick for West Brom (more on that in a second), but in the interest of fairness we've given this weekend's Goal of the Week to Ohashi - for his second effort, cutting inside and bending a left-footed strike into the top corner.
Mowatt sends the Baggies top
As previously mentioned, Mowatt scored an excellent free-kick during West Brom's 3-0 win against Portsmouth, but we've saved him for our Player of the Week award rather than just mentioning his goal.
The midfielder bagged a brace for the Baggies and his first strike was equally as good, firing into the top corner after some neat footwork just inside the penalty area.
Mowatt's all-round play was excellent away from his two goals and was enough to earn him a staggering 9.7 Flashscore player rating, making him our Player of the Week by quite a distance.
We've established the best 11 performers from the weekend in our Top XI below, based on the player ratings calculated after each game.
Full results:
