Weekend Notes: Leeds 3-1 Leicester and other season-changing stories
Championship: QPR out of the relegation zone + Stoke City drop in | League One: Barnsley in automatic contention + Posh get their act together | League Two: Stags stun + Notts County in bottom half
It is rare for the same three teams to occupy the same three positions for five months.
For the first time since September, the Championship’s relegation zone takes on a new look. After wins for the teams in 17th, 18th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd place, out climb QPR; in drop Stoke.
The sardine spectacle of the teams between 16th and 23rd has us hook, line and sinker. But all of that wrangling is happening below the ratcheting-up of pressure at the other end of the table.
Last week, on the Monday Pod, George Elek said this: "I definitely don't think that the Championship title race is a procession from here.”
After Leeds 3-1 Leicester, any peaceable procession has been disturbed, and it’s now reasonable to interrogate the possibility of a more classic to-and-fro Championship title race. Who’d have thought that was likely when the Foxes were 17 points clear of Leeds on 1 Jan 2024?
In League One, Posh got their act together after weeks of poor performances, Barnsley beat Derby to put their name in the mouths of anyone talking automatic promotion, whilst down the bottom there are a group of ten teams realistically vying to avoid relegation.
Finally, in League Two: the Stags stunned Salford to go top, MK cut down Newport to open up the automatic race, and the league table — from 7th to 16th — still looks batch-it crazy. Even more so, now that promotion-favourites Notts County drop into the bottom half — they were 5th on New Year’s Day!
Put simply: with the exception of the League Two relegation places, EVERYTHING is in play across the EFL. Who wants to put a run together?
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