Who’s hot, who’s not in European soccer

Nottingham Forest’s 4-1 home victory over Leicester City in the FA Cup last weekend wasn’t exactly “Boreham Wood over Bournemouth” levels of shocking, but it was still pretty jarring. A second-division team that hasn’t been in the Premier League since 1999 putting an outright pummeling on the defending Cup champions? That will always be surprising, especially considering the stats bore it out to a certain degree — Forest generated 1.9 expected goals (xG) to Leicester’s 0.6 and attempted four shots from within 10 meters. Leicester managed only one.

City Ground was rocking. It was great to see. But if you’ve been following the Championship race this season, the result couldn’t have been a total surprise, as Forest have basically played like a Premier League team since mid-September.

After finishing 17th in the Championship last season, the Reds took just one point from their first seven league matches and fired manager Chris Hughton in favour of former Swansea top man Steve Cooper. Teams will often enjoy a new-manager bump after making a change, but said bump has lasted nearly five months now.

Championship table since Sept. 17:
1. Fulham (45 points, +39 goal differential)
2. Nottingham Forest (45, +7)
3. Blackburn Rovers (41, +11)
4. Bournemouth (40, +15)
5. Queens Park Rangers (40, +8)

Forest’s dismal start means they’ve only now reached sixth place — which would get them into the promotion playoff — and they’re nine points outside of one of the automatic promotion spots, but their form is undeniably awesome at the moment.

Which other teams have seen serious changes in fortune since the beginning of the 2021-22 season? Let’s take a look.

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