Six points is the current gap between Liverpool in first and Man City in second in the Premier League.
It is also the difference between first placed West Brom and tenth placed Fulham in England’s second division.
Last season’s chaotic Championship campaign looked a near enough impossible act to follow… but the boys of the 19/20 season are giving it a good go.
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Within that top ten are some of the usual suspects.
Top of the table West Brom, along with Leeds and Fulham, were 5/2 with most bookmakers to get promoted this season.
Third place Swansea and fourth place Nottingham Forrest were both 8/1 while Preston in sixth were 10/1.
Stoke City were tipped at 7/2 to go up but are currently second from bottom while Charlton, who had the longest odds for promotion in the League at 25/1, are just one position off a play-off place.
To put it simply, it’s a lottery.
On the same date last year six points separated first and 11th in The Championship so this is no freak occurrence.
Middlesbrough were sitting pretty at the top of the table in late October but missed out on the play-offs in May.
Aston Villa, who were promoted via the play-offs, were down in 13th, so not much can be determined in the first few months of the season.
Last season boiled down to who had the endurance to last the full 46 games. Sheffield and Norwich ran away with the automatic promotion spots and left; Derby, Villa, Leeds and West Brom to work out who was ‘best of the rest.’
And it was Villa, who were 11th after 34 games, who went on a ten-game winning run to secure the play-off space and ultimately a spot back in the big time.
So far this season no-one has run away with an early lead and it is plausible that clubs as far down as Derby in 15th can still expect a push for the play-offs.
Lee Bowyer’s Charlton are the surprise package in with the big boys but the likes of QPR and Preston are also exceeding expectations after 12 games.
Leeds are once again at the right end of the table under Marcel Bielsa’s guidance but are not immune to the odd upset, losing to Milwall and Charlton recently.
It’s Slaven Bilic’s West Brom who are currently top of the tree, they are the only side in the division to win more than two points a game on average.
It has been a few years since Wolves waltzed their way through the season and made the league look winnable.
But who wants a runaway leader anyway?
The Championship of last year and, by the looks of it, this season, should come down to those final games in April and May.
Throughout the season it is important to keep your name in the hat for the final two months, where a run of good form can see you go up and a few losses can see you staring down the barrel of League One.
We wouldn’t want The Championship any other way, each team with thrills and spills more or less every month.
It’s a heart-wrenching, accumulator-wrecking mess… and it’s bloody brilliant.
Whether your nailed on to go down, or a shoo in for promotion in August – pre-season predictions are often out the window by the time the leafs turn brown.