After four games of the Championship season, the early pacesetters are Ipswich Town and Brighton & Hove Albion and the two meet at Portman Road this weekend.

Victory for either could take them five points clear of third place going into the first international break.

Ipswich

Mick McCarthy's men are top of the table on goal difference and are on a run of five straight wins in all competitions.

In midweek they reached the third round of the Capital One Cup for the first time since 2010 - they went on to reach the semi-finals that year - with a 4-1 extra-time win over Doncaster Rovers and have been handed a glamorous away day at Manchester United.

Last time out in the league they went to Preston North End and became the first team to score against Simon Grayson's side, also ending the newly-promoted Lilywhites' 15-match unbeaten home run.

It is a fantastic start, but arguably they should still have a 100% record after conceding twice after the 90-minute mark on the opening weekend at Brentford.

Before Tuesday's win at Donny, Ipswich had scored exactly two goals in every game this season without last season's star man Daryl Murphy finding the net.

McCarthy's men have scored in each of their last 18 league games and Freddie Sears has been key to that, scoring seven and assisting four in his last 12 league appearances for the Tractor Boys.

This season, only Queens Park Rangers have scored more than the Blues, who lost just three times at home in 2013-14 (all by a scoreline of 0-1).

Recent form: DWWWWW

Brighton

Chris Hughton's side have started the season in fine form and look primed for a third playoff finish in four seasons after three wins and a draw in their opening four games.

The Seagulls did suffer their first defeat on Tuesday, though, by going down to Walsall in the Cup and they would have been gutted to see the Saddlers draw Chelsea at home in the third round.

In the league, Brighton are unbeaten in five games if you include the final game of last season. Last weekend they hosted Blackburn Rovers and again it was Kazenga LuaLua who came up with the only goal, like he has done in three games this season.

If the Seagulls avoid defeat in Suffolk they will go six unbeaten for the first time since May 2014 when they went eight without defeat.

Brighton's games are often low scoring - there have been under three goals in 12 of their last 14 Championship games - and the Seagulls are one of five sides to have only let in two goals in their four league games, but both of those were on the road.

They were recently boosted by the news that Lewis Dunk has signed a new contract this week after it seemed that he was bound for Fulham.

Recent form: WWWDWL

Team News

Ipswich will be without two of last year's key players as Christophe Berra and Daryl Murphy, who has scored in each of his last three appearances against the Seagulls, won't be fit.

Berra damaged his hamstring earlier this week and could be out for four weeks, meaning that youngster Josh Emmanuel will come in at right-back and captain Luke Chambers will slide across to centre-back.

Teddy Bishop, Kevin Bru, Luke Hyam and Jonathan Parr remain out, while goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski should return after he missed the trip to Preston following the loss of his father.

The big news for Brighton is that Bobby Zamora is back to full fitness and could make his second Seagulls debut.

Elsewhere, Hughton has a near fully-fit squad to choose from, with Inigo Calderon a doubt after picking up a knock at Walsall.

Ipswich possible starting lineup:
Gerken; Emmanuel, Chambers, Smith, Knudsen; Maitland-Niles, Skuse, Douglas, Fraser; Sears, McGoldrick

Brighton possible starting lineup:
Stockdale; Bruno, Greer, Dunk, Bong; Murphy, Stephens, Kayal, LuaLua; Hemed, Baldock

Head To Head

Brighton had lost three in a row against Ipswich before their 3-2 win in the two sides' last meeting in January.

Ipswich have netted two goals in each of their last four against Brighton in the Championship, with three of those ending 2-0.

This will be the 67th meeting between the two and Ipswich hold the better overall record with 30 wins to Brighton's 23.

Video Preview

Hit play below to see what the Sports Mole Sofa had to say about this encounter:

We say: Ipswich 2-0 Brighton

This is the first real test of Brighton's promotion credentials and they might struggle at what is one of the hardest grounds to visit in the league.