Norwich City and Leeds United have spent the majority of the 2018-19 EFL Championship season battling one another for the top spot, and smart money would have long since been placed on them to finish in two-two and secure automatic promotion to the Premier League.
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That was before Sheffield United began their current run of six games unbeaten (four wins) and just one loss in their last 12 games (eight wins), to complicate matters. Leeds, on the other hand, have lost five of their last 11 (five wins) and have fallen off their longtime perch atop the table. Norwich’s recent form has been somewhere in the middle of the other two (6W-3D-1L in their last 10), but just good enough to create a two-point advantage over Leeds.
Sheffield United, who will face Steel derby rivals Sheffield Wednesday on Monday, entered the weekend level on points with Leeds, but have since fallen three back after Marcelo Bielsa’s side thrashed West Bromwich Albion 4-0 on Friday. For about 17 hours, Leeds were again top of the Championship.
Norwich then proceeded to win 3-1 away to Millwall on Saturday to reclaim the summit. Golden Boot leader Teemu Pukki bagged his 24th league goal of the season in the process.
The rest of the race for playoff places is, shall we say, an unmitigated disaster zone where absolutely anything can, and likely will, happen. We’ll turn our attention to that in a few weeks when the dozen teams still in the mix begin to, hopefully, sort themselves out.
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After 34.5 of 46 rounds…
| Place | Team | Points | GD |
| 1 | Norwich City | 69 | +26 |
| 2 | Leeds United | 67 | +21 |
| 3 | Sheffield United | 64 | +25 |
| 4 | West Bromwich Albion | 60 | +20 |
| 5 | Middlesbrough | 58 | +14 |
| 6 | Bristol City | 54 | +8 |
| 7 | Derby County | 51 | +1 |
| 8 | Birmingham City | 50 | +8 |
| 9 | Nottingham Forest | 50 | +7 |
| 10 | Hull City | 50 | +2 |
| 11 | Aston Villa | 48 | +8 |
| 12 | Preston North End | 48 | +5 |