Be honest, you didn't have Luton Town and Reading down as early pacesetters in the Championship before a ball was kicked did you?
The Hatters had the second worse defence in the division last season and only secured their second-tier survival on the final day of the campaign. It took Nathan Jones returning to Kenilworth Road after his ill-fated coaching switch to Stoke City to help Luton stay up.
With a similar squad, they are one of three teams to have won both of their opening league games. Former Nottingham Forest midfielder Chris Cohen has joined the coaching staff of the Hatters too.
That catches the eye after his excellent work with the youth team. Luton were more fancied to go down than make the play-offs in pre-season but are now 9/2 chances for a top-six finish.
Reading, meanwhile, are also the same price in the football betting on making the Championship top six. The Royals made a left-field managerial appointment in former Chicago Fire boss Veljko Paunovic. Twice capped by Serbia and Montenegro, the former Atletico Madrid player had no working knowledge of English football. It makes the fine start made by Reading all the more remarkable.
Before his stint managing in the MLS, Paunovic had spells coaching various Serbian national youth teams. As with Luton, the Royals have not made big splashes in the transfer market and yet find themselves top of the early league table on goal difference.
Reading finished comfortably in mid-table last season, with an eight-point cushion on relegation and a dozen shy of the play-offs. They have built on keeping 12 league clean sheets from that campaign by not conceding a Championship goal to date.
A combination of continuity and change has also got the ambitious Bristol City off to a flier too. Their play-off push ran out of steam last term and that cost ex-player Lee Johnson his job as manager after almost four-and-a-half years in charge, but assistant boss Dean Holden has stepped in nicely.
Chris Martin cost a reported £1,200,000 from Derby County and the Scotland striker adds further strength in depth to the Robins in attacking areas. The loan capture of Alfie Mawson from Fulham and free transfer of ex-West Bromwich Albion captain Chris Brunt look like smart business done at Ashton Gate, too.
At 11/4 for a top-six finish and 13/2 to go up, Bristol City will want to maintain their fine start to the Championship campaign and make the play-offs at least. It's not as though pre-season promotion favourites Brentford, Bournemouth, who lost long-serving boss Eddie Howe after Premier League relegation, Norwich City and Watford have started badly either.
This division is a marathon, not a sprint, and navigating a way out of it should be easier for teams with larger squads and greater resources. Whether high-flying Reading and Luton can keep up the early pace they have set remains to be seen, but the Championship remains as absorbing as ever.
