Lewis Travis is one of the longer-serving players within the Blackburn ranks and even played for the youth team, so he knows exactly what these local derby encounters mean to the supporters.

His manager, John Eustace, won’t suddenly want to calm him down and change his style at all, as it takes everything away from who he is as a player. He will continue to buzz around the midfield and get stuck in at every opportunity, so the referee will quickly become aware of his presence.

His case for committing at least a couple of fouls on Sunday increases knowing what Travis has been up to in league action this season. In fact, the 26-year-old has made five Championship appearances and in four of those he has indeed made not one, but exactly two fouls.

Considering this encounter with Preston is a big Lancashire derby, tempers will be even higher than usual, meaning he may even surpass a total of two. This would make receiving a card being a completely plausible event. Speaking of cards, the central midfielder tops the Rovers charts in 2024/25 in all competitions in terms of yellow cards, further highlighting the combative nature to his game.

Yuki Ohashi is one of the form players in the Championship and has settled into this league incredibly quickly. When Sammie Szmodics left for Ipswich, many Rovers fans were left wondering where the goals might come from, but in the form of their recent Japanese signing, they need not worry. He already has five goals to his name in all competitions and appears to have wrestled the striker position all to himself for now.

It could be another clash in which he produces his best, just like when firing in a brace in the 3-0 home victory against Bristol City last weekend. In this local derby encounter, Blackburn are facing a Preston side that haven’t been too tight defensively in the current campaign. That is proven knowing The Lilywhites have maintained just the one Championship clean sheet so far.

More negativity around North End being able to keep Ohashi quiet on the day is the fact that only Portsmouth and Plymouth have a worse xGA compared to them, meaning they are used to allowing the opponents to create big chances on goal.

Sondre Tronstad has become a permanent fixture alongside Lewis Travis at the heart of the Blackburn midfield all season. They complement each other in how they play and it is this combination, which may not attract many headlines, as to one of the reasons why Rovers have had a strong start to the campaign.

He does a fine job at protecting his back four, which in turn will naturally mean having to commit a foul or two at times, especially give how many players Blackburn often throw forward, which can leave them vulnerable.

The Norwegian has made six appearances for the Ewood Park club in all competitions this season and has only failed to make a foul in one of those. The average per match reads at 1.16 and he will undoubtedly come under some pressure here taking the local rivalry element into account as well.

The fact he will most likely will play a full 90 minutes, all being well, is handy as it ultimately gives him more time to produce a foul. This is said in some confidence as across his five league clashes he has played the full match four times, and was withdrawn on 89 minutes in the other.

Sam Greenwood was one of few signings made by the club over the summer, meaning it was previous boss Ryan Lowe that signed him. He is one who will have felt a little let down more than most when Lowe essentially resigned after one match, but he continues to play a role under Heckingbottom. He is likely to start again on Sunday, certainly whilst Josh Bowler improves his match fitness having signed following virtually no pre-season.

Bowler played in the cup in midweek so Greenwood will be fresher. It is a 50-50 split in regards to games in which he has started or been a sub in all competitions so far, so five shots across those eight appearances can be upgraded a little. Given his battle with Bowler for the same position, he will also be fired up to make a positive impression.

Lowe departed following the opening day defeat to Sheffield United and that match remains the only contest in 2024/25 in which they have failed to score. Therefore, they have been a little bolder and open in their style since then, which is clearly of benefit to forward players such as Greenwood.

Being the home team they’ll want to play aggressively, especially in a local derby and doing so will get the fans on side in what should be a raucous atmosphere at Deepdale.

As recently as July, Yuki Ohashi was playing in the J1 League with Sanfrecce Hiroshima and already had two goals to his name for the season. Fast forward a few months and he is now leading the forward line in the English Championship with Blackburn Rovers; clearly an upgrade in terms of the quality of level.

Despite this, he has already bagged five goals in all competitions, including netting twice in the 3-0 success at home to Bristol City last weekend. This is all from only seven appearances for his new team.

He is the top scorer for the club and the most remarkable thing of all is how well he has settled into his new normal. It cannot have been easy moving out of Japan and coming to somewhere new, but he has focused all of his energy onto the pitch and his team are reaping the rewards of it. It is no surprise the forward is leading their scoring charts as he also tops Blackburn’s xGF tally for individual players.

Furthermore, Preston have the third-worst xGA in the Championship, meaning they are no strangers to conceding the type of chances someone such as Ohashi will take advantage of.

After beginning the campaign with their first five matches in all competitions seeing at least one of the two teams on the day fail to score, Preston are now on a three-match sequence in league and cup where both teams to score has indeed featured. It is maybe no shock this has occurred now that Paul Heckingbottom has had more time to manage the team, meaning more of his tactics and methods are coming across within the squad.

The former Sheffield United manager is an attack-minded coach, which will help them offensively but it is also showcasing their defensive issues, which look no closer to a resolution. Still, North End scoring for five games straight in all competitions has to be seen as a positive.

Blackburn simply score goals. That has been their motto this season, much to the surprise of many who tipped them to be relegated. John Eustace has laughed off those comments by quickly assembling a team that is the joint-highest scorers in the Championship. Six of their seven matches in all competitions this season have also contained both teams scoring.

The only time it didn’t was in the previous encounter when beating Bristol City 3-0, but an xGF of 0.74 suggests on another day Blackburn could’ve conceded again. They play openly, and that won’t change despite it being a local derby and being away from home.

Blackburn have an eye for goals and a natural consequence of this is to gain corners. They are averaging 2.40 goals in the league but that increases to 2.71 when accounting for cup matches as well. This is no fluke over that period of time, so Preston will be tested this weekend.

Rovers have been averaging 3.80 corners per Championship match, which is actually amongst the lowest, but they’d only need to improve that by a few here. Plus, they’ve actually averaged 5.75 corners across their previous four in all competitions.

What further aids hopes for the away team on the corner count is Preston’s struggles at preventing corners for the opposition in the first place. Heckingbottom’s side are conceding an average of 7.00 corners in league action, a figure where only three other clubs have a worst figure.

Blackburn manager John Eustace is someone who has a reputation for being strong on set-piece situations, and there is plenty pointing towards them winning the corner count outright at the weekend, as well.

Preston have been involved in eight matches this season between league and cup commitments, and there are plenty of similarities that connect all of those results together. One of those is that each and every one of them has had at least one first-half goal within them. In fact, they have averaged 1.50 goals in the opening 45 minutes to be exact.

There is also something very similar when asking the same question of Blackburn games, in terms of the number of first-half goals. Rovers have played seven encounters in all competitions and, like Preston, each one has had a first-half goal within it.

1.43 is the average number of first-half goals overall, and considering Blackburn are on a four-match streak of scoring before half-time, it suggests they are starting matches with a spring in their step.