Can a stuttering Fulham be budged, will rejuvenated Blades push on and are Reading doomed despite their pedigree?
Not so fast. The stuttering form of leaders Fulham and second-placed Bournemouth – neither have won any of their past five matches – has knitted things together towards the summit to tee up an intriguing second half of the season. A four-point blanket covers the top four, with Blackburn nestled in third above West Brom after bouncing back from a freak 7-0 trouncing by Fulham last month (it was only the second time they had lost a league game by more than a single goal since October 2020) by recording six wins in seven games, conceding twice. Among those on the Fulham scoresheet was Aleksandar Mitrovic, who has 25 goals in 27 games for club and country this season and whose league tally of 22 means he has outscored four strugglers in the division: Hull, Peterborough, Barnsley and Derby.