• Leyton Orient (6th) finished four places and 14 points above Huddersfield (10th) last season.

• Perhaps more impressively, Orient’s goal difference was +21 better than Huddersfield’s over the course of the 2024/25 League One season.

• However, Orient had one of the biggest overperformances of their expected goals in League One; they scored 72 goals from an xG of only 58, 14 more goals than expected.

Two potential promotion contenders meet on the opening day as big spending Huddersfield take on last year’s 6th-placed team Leyton Orient.

🔵 Huddersfield Attempting to Harness the Power of Change

Huddersfield have made wholescale changes over the close season. Lee Grant takes charge of his first ever match in the EFL as head coach, and he will have multiple debutants in his team as well.

We often hear how difficult it can be to bring together so many new pieces into a team at once, so it will be interesting to see how this all knits together. There seems to have been a lot of positive recruitment, and the owners can’t be accused of a lack of investment. 

This can certainly help to get the fans onside and develop a positive feeling around the camp, but can it be an instant success on the pitch?

🔴 Orient Aiming to Build on Play-Off Final Appearance

There are two ways to handle a play-off campaign. Sometimes teams fade away from the play-off picture with an early hangover, but many teams are able to replicate their form and stay in and around the top six picture.

I think that Richie Wellens will be able to galvanise his players enough to avoid the hangover and have them competing at the top end again. However, last season started really poorly for Orient, and they were able to blast through the division, so even if they do start poorly, Wellens knows that there is time for recovery.

📊 Huddersfield v Leyton Orient H2H

Going back to 2010, Huddersfield have a substantial lead in the head-to-head. They have won four of seven meetings with Leyton Orient, indeed, they were unbeaten against the Grecians until that infamous last game of the season in May.

There has to be a pinch of salt taken with the majority of this head-to-head record, because before last season they hadn't met in the league since 2015.

Looking specifically at last season, then, Huddersfield actually won their first meeting convincingly in November in London despite Josh Koroma (who has since moved to Orient) missing a penalty to make it even more one-sided.

However, Orient ran away with the reverse fixture. Much of this could be put down to motivation, with Orient needing to win to get into the play-offs and Huddersfield already having nothing to play for.

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Check out these Huddersfield v Leyton Orient Betting Stats and our Paddy Power Beat The Drop Predictions.

* I recommend waiting for confirmed team line-ups before placing any bets.

* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.