The U’s have adjusted well to life in the second tier, playing at the level for the first time in 25 years.

United have won all three of their home games, against Norwich City, Preston North End and Stoke City, while losing their three away matches at Coventry City, Blackburn Rovers and Bristol City.

After collecting nine points from their opening six games, the U’s sit ninth in the Championship table and welcome third-placed Burnley, relegated from the Premier League last season, to the Kassam Stadium on Saturday.

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United head coach Des Buckingham says the tactical tweaks which happen within a match, plus the intensity in which they are played, have been among the more noticeable differences between the Championship and League One.

Buckingham told BBC Radio Oxford’s The Dub podcast: “Surprise-wise, it’s probably the amount of changes that happen within game. In League One, you may get a change of formation or a change of some sort within the game, but no way near the level, and even smaller tweaks that make a significant difference at this level.

“There’s a lot more of that I’ve seen in the six games we’ve had, both for opposition teams and ourselves. It’s significantly noticeable.

“The speed at which the game is played, we’re covering similar distances as a total game to game.

“We’re probably covering anything between 100km as a collective to up to what has been 115km as our highest so far this season.

“That’s probably 10 per cent higher from League One to the Championship. It’s not a significant jump in terms of distance, but the speed at which the game is played, our high-speed distance is 52 per cent higher compared to anything we had last year.

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“The sprint distances are up 54 per cent than they were this time last year as an average across the team.

“What it’s showing is that the total distances haven’t significantly changed, but the speed of the game is certainly significantly different.

“What that brings is less time on the ball. If you have less time on the ball, you have to make decisions quicker.

“You don’t get the time to make those decisions as easily as in League One. That wasn’t so much as a surprise, but what it has done is made sure we’re aware what the measures are when we implement our training plan across the week, we try and expose our players to that as often as we possibly can.”