Pick of the stats: Queens Park Rangers v Preston North End

[BBC] Preston North End take on their first match since sacking boss Paul Heckingbottom on Saturday (15:00 BST) and it's a tough one. They make the trip to Loftus Road to visit a Queens Park Rangers side two points off league leaders West Ham United after conceding just one loss in six games. QPR are unbeaten in six league games against Preston (W4 D2), although both meetings last season were 1-1 draws. Preston have lost four of their last seven league visits to Queens Park Rangers (W2 D1), failing to win their last three (D1 L2). Only Preston (9) have lost more Championship home games in 2026 than QPR (8). It's more home league defeats than the Hoops suffered in the entirety of 2025 (7). Preston have lost six of their seven Championship games this season (W1); never in their history have they lost as many as seven of their first eight matches of a league campaign. Preston (-4.2) and QPR (-2.7) are two of the four biggest underperformers when it comes to xG differential between goals scored and xG in the Championship this season, with Cardiff (-5.6) and Lincoln (-2.8) making up the bottom four. [BBC]