Coventry City enjoying a record lead at the top of the Championship | OneFootball

Frank Lampard's Coventry City have had an exceptional start to the 2025/26 Championship season underlined by their excellent win over Middlesbrough on Tuesday night.

The Sky Blues now have a healthy 10 point gap – the highest point gap from first to second since the Championship's rebrand for the 2004/05 season.

To really put into perspective how well Coventry are doing with only 37% of the season having been played we looked at how they compare to other previous league leaders at this stage. Before that superb 10-point cushion, the highest a league leader had been ahead of any other side in the Championship at this stage of the season was six, which happened twice. 

The most recent of those teams were Wolverhampton Wanderers' 2008/09 team who were six points clear of Birmingham City at that stage with 40 points in total – the same tally as Coventry now. Wolves then went on to win the Championship with 90 points, finishing seven clear of the second-placed Blues (Burnley also joined the two in the Premier League after winning the play-offs).

Before that in the first season in which the second tier was known as the Championship, Wigan Athletic were six points clear of Ipswich Town sitting on 39 points although they eventually finished second behind Sunderland with play-off winners West Ham United also going up.

Surprisingly, 40 points isn't the record after 17 games played though – two sides have had more points. Sheffield United were top of the league in the 2005/06 season with 41 points, three clear of a Reading team who would go on to win the Championship with an incredible 106 points.

Better than that Blades side at this point was the Leicester City team of the 2023/24 campaign who had 42 points – the highest number of any team at this stage. Of course, the Foxes went on to win the league that year with a healthy 97 points although they now sit in 13th in the Championship, underlining how quickly things can soon change.

So, is it time for fans to get ready for the Premier League for the first time since the 2000/01 season? Not quite yet but should they keep up this form then they should clinch a promotion place with games to spare.