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The EFL Championship, England's second tier football league has gotten off to an unexpected start with Leeds United currently sitting on top of the table.
Neil Warnock's Cardiff side had a 100% record after five games, as the Welshman side shared the spoils in a tricky test against Fulham and following a 3-0 defeat to Preston, they sit a point and place behind Leeds after seven games.
Fulham, like a few other clubs, has struggled to find early form both home and away and languish in the bottom half of the table.
A number of teams who were considered to be title and promotion favourites find themselves playing catch up to those like Preston and Sheffield United who have exceeded expectations and had good starts to the season.
With twists and turns at every game-week, this promises to be an exciting season as we take a look at a few teams capable of earning promotion to the Premier League, despite poor starts to the season.
#5 Aston Villa
Pre-season favourites for promotion, Villa are currently lingering in 18th position and have found it tough to get off to a quick start yet again this campaign. Steve Bruce has expressed his disappointment with the run of form and has called for fans to remain calm while the players gel with each other and perform better.
Boasting a rich squad of old heads and young guns, theoretically, Bruce's Villa should see themselves across the line. In defence, the addition of Neil Taylor, James Chester and John Terry partnering Tommy Elphick seems like a formidable force with years of combined Premier League experience among the four.
To steady the ship, the acquisition of Irish tackler Glenn Whelan to play alongside Mile Jedinak in the middle of the park will provide freedom to the likes of Robert Snodgrass on loan from West Ham, Gabby Agbonlahor and English U-21 starlet Jack Grealish to create chances going forward.
Steve Bruce once again worked his magic in the transfer window by acquiring quality footballers for great margins as he seeks to do with Villa what he's accomplished before with Hull, Wigan and Birmingham and bring the club back into the Premier League.
#4 Sheffield Wednesday
Despite having a brilliant last season by finishing fourth and narrowly missing out on the playoff final, Carlos Carvalhal has found his job to be a bit difficult this campaign with rumours of his dismissal doing the rounds.
The effect of these rumours seems to have subsided as Wednesday picked up crucial wins against Nottingham Forest and Brentford. With the six quick points, Wednesday climbed up ten places to 6th, five points off the leaders Leeds
With a strong squad and a manager currently getting out of a slump, Sheffield Wednesday's rise to challenge for promotion year after year indicates the quality of work being done by the manager and his staff.
Keeping most of the squad during the window was helpful but the key for Carvalhal will be to keep his best players healthy.
Steven Fletcher, Fernando Forestieri are key players for Wednesday and the addition of veteran George Boyd to the ranks gives The Owls multiple attacking options.
Counting Wednesday out of the promotion picture this early in the campaign would be underestimating the quality of players and manager, as they have too much quality not to be lurking in and around the playoff places come the end of the season.
#3 Fulham
Led by Slavisa Jokanovic, the man in charge of Watford's promotion to the Premier League in 2015, Fulham appointed the Serbian back in December 2015 as he guided The Cottagers to safety in his first season.
Fulham's meteoric rise to finish in the playoff spots last season met the manager's high standards set prior to the start of the previous season.
Consistent in setting high demands from his squad, promotion is the goal this campaign, although a poor start to the season coupled with a few key departures has affected the mood at Craven Cottage.
However, a majority of the fans and neutrals still believe Jovankovic is the man to take Fulham back into the Premier League, despite them languishing in 13th position this early.
Fulham has had a good window with the signatures of Ibrahima Cisse, Rui Fonte, Yohan Mollo and Aboubakar Kamara to help the club's bid for automatic promotion.
Fulham has dropped points in games that should have been won, as they continue to look to improve performances, pick up victories and signal their intent for promotion.
#2 Reading
After missing out on automatic promotion last season by 7 points and losing the playoff final to Huddersfield Town, Reading and their manager Jaap Stam were so close and yet so far from the top flight.
Looking at their early season form, they have found it difficult to bounce back from the disappointments of last season.
However, Stam has the complete backing of the club's Chinese board to replicate some of last season's form and go a step further to bring the Madejski Stadium back among the Premier League elite.
The capture of Sone Aluko from fellow promotion hopefuls, Fulham, indicates Stam is ready to fight it out again to secure the club's promotion to the big league.
Along with a number of players nursing their way back to full fitness, Stam believes his side have had a fruitful summer window and the goal is to claim the Championship crown and not have to endure the pressures of a playoff.
With the whole team from last season intact, the squad will have to pull together, pick up results and climb the table as they currently lie in 17th spot with a game in hand, boasting a record of two wins, three losses and a draw.
#1 Birmingham City
The addition of Birmingham City on this list might surprise a few, although the Blues could be dark horses for automatic promotion to the Premier League this season.
Having picked up just 4 points out of a possible 21, in their 7 games played so far this campaign, Harry Redknapp has called for patience and hard work from his side to help get through this difficult period, as they languish in the bottom three.
In Redknapp, Birmingham has appointed a successful, experienced manager who has worked his way through the footballing structure in England over the last 30 years. Having won the competition with Portsmouth when it was called the First Division as well as getting QPR promoted to the Premier League via the playoff's, Redknapp has the guile, experience, backing of the club board and a good set of players to compete for automatic promotion.
Avoiding the drop last season and securing the club's financial stability were two major victories for the club and with a bunch of new faces added to the squad, St Andrew's will be a force that could topple the best of sides in the Championship.
Cohen Bramall and Carl Jenkinson have joined the Blues on a season long from Arsenal, strengthing the depth of the Birmingham squad for a long season ahead.
The signing of Jota from Championship rivals Brentford signals a huge boost to the club's fans guaranteeing not only goals but acts as an early mission statement of sorts to take the Blues back into the top tier of English football.
