An opportunity beckons at Sheffield United after international break
Alan Biggs on the unknowns of football’s most unpredictable league
Here's where football, and especially the Championship, can make mugs of all of us.
I looked at the early table and then matched it up with Sheffield United's forthcoming fixtures.
Of the next nine, the highest ranked opponents are Bristol City (currently 8th) and Charlton (9th).
Of those nine all told, the average position of the opposition is 15th.
But when you see the Blades themselves 18th - and below the level most of us expect in the longer run - you realise how false these early standings can turn out to be.
That said, an opportunity beckons to turn the season around.
Nothing in the next sequence suggests it will be easy but it doesn't look too formidable either.
Mind you, it's hard to tell either way. There's an awful lot of settling down to be done.
Who expected Swansea to be top at this stage? Or Burnley to be bottom?
Only West Ham, Middlesbrough and Wolves are performing to expectations, although Southampton would be up around them without their four-point deduction over Spygate.
Can West Brom and Stoke sustain their promising starts? Will Watford and Derby continue to languish?
There are an awful lot of unknowns in football's most unpredictable league.
Which makes it so hazardous to forecast what lies in store for the Blades. Either way, you suspect it will be by the finest of margins.
And it has to be said that those tight margins are harder to tilt without the likes of Gus Hamer, Callum O'Hare and Andre Brooks. So United have to find another way.