The lower echelons of the Premier League looks delicately poised to offer us a thrilling relegation battle going into the final months of the campaign.
It's that time of the season where relegation-threatened sides either channel their inner Barcelona or capitulate amid the enormous pressure attached to being in and around the dreaded drop zone.
With five points separating the bottom six and just 12 games left to play, Swansea City, Middlesbrough, Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Hull City and Sunderland will have to dig deep as they look to retain their Premier League status.
Here's who we think will either stay up or go down:
Leicester City - 15th
It's taken just one night for Leicester to be right back in the race for Premier League survival.
Not too long ago, the reigning champions were sleepwalking towards relegation.
Parking two buses seemed to be the only way out for them, but Claudio Ranieri gets sacked and all of a sudden they become Bayern Munich.
One may argue that Liverpool are experts at losing the low-key games, but Leicester's performance against them was unlike anything we've seen this term – a throwback to last season.
Neutral fans are understandably angry with Leicester's players as their return to form is a bit too elaborate to be a coincidence.
With Craig Shakespeare currently in the driving seat for the job on a less-than-temporary basis, Leicester's players are compelled to be at their best again in a bid to avoid being ruthlessly axed in the summer.
If they perform at an optimal level up until the end of the season, Shakespeare may even be in the running for a permanent role at the helm and the current playing group will undoubtedly remain at the King Power Stadium beyond this season.
The Foxes look primed for survival now that the players are on the way back to being their old selves again.
Verdict:Survival
Swansea City - 16th
From Francesco Guidolin to Bob Bradley and now Paul Clement – it's seemingly third-time lucky for Swansea.
Things are beginning to look up for the Swans and that's mostly due to the wind of change that accompanied Clement when he left his role at Bayern Munich to become Swansea's helmsman.
Swansea were languishing at the bottom of the table when Clement arrived, they now sit 16thin the league standings with arguably the best chance of staying up.
The Welsh side have recorded three wins in their last five games and despite the 3-1 loss to Chelsea, a game they were expected to lose, Swansea still have a good thing going for them and Gylfi Sigurdsson is right at the heart of it.
Sigurdsson has been phenomenal for Swansea in more ways than one. He's impelled his teammates to be at their best and he's given Swansea supporters something to hope for whilst putting up scintillating displays at the Liberty Stadium and on the road.
Swansea's chances of survival are quite high, possibly the highest out of their fellow relegation strugglers, but lest we forget, the bottom six is still in flux and things could easily go dour for Swansea if their performance levels drop.
At this stage, though, it's fair to say that Swansea will still be a Premier League side come next season.
Verdict: Survival
Middlesbrough - 17th
Aitor Karanka's tactical advocacy is simple, yet relatively effective – an imperfect blend of pragmatism and flair with the emphasis being on the former – setting up a team that's hard to break down and still (mildly) capable of conjuring goalscoring opportunities, however rare they may be.
Actually scoring goals is the issue though.
For much of the season, Middlesbrough's system has kept them out of trouble as they've held teams to draws and suffered losses mostly in impossible fixtures.
Karanka's astute nature has kept his side from peril whilst remaining in its midst. Middlesbrough have to improve the attacking aspect of their game in order to fully steer clear of danger.
Being hard to break down has helped Middlesbrough amass stalemates. They have the most draws in the league (10), the least wins (4), and alongside Arsenal, they've conceded the fourth fewest goals.
Middlesbrough's defensive record is great by Premier League standards, their knack for draws however, not so much. It leaves them in a tight spot seeing as their progression up the table is slow if not non-existent as a result of sharing the spoils too frequently with their opponents.
Boro's lack of wins is more down to unwillingness than inability. They've got decent players up front, but the team as a whole is too intent on not-losing thus reducing their chances of actually winning with regularity.
Karanka simply needs to get his team to score more often. 19 goals in this competition is just not enough.
It's worth noting that Premier League survival remains highly likely for Boro. But there's a catch!
If they rely solely on their defensive stability, they'll also have to depend heavily on the performances of the teams below them, but they're in luck as at least three sides are worse off at the moment.
Verdict: Survival
Crystal Palace - 18th
They've got survival expert big Sam Allardyce in tow so there's no way they're going down, right?
Wrong.
Allardyce has never steered a club towards relegation, but that could change this term if ample care is not taken. His previous achievements are irrelevant to Crystal Palace's current cause as this season's relegation fight goes beyond all the great escapes he's pulled off in the past.
His experience in beating the drop will be useful, yet not as vital as many may think. Allardyce needs to be a man of action; galvanising his team and setting his side up to suit the opposition they come up against in order to have a better chance of grabbing points.
Big Sam needs to put attacking prowess on a plate and sprinkle lots of defensive stability on it - a bitter meal for any team Palace comes up against.
Palace have the playing personnel to stay up this season, they just need proper guidance, but Big Sam's 25 years of managerial experience has put them on a different road, one that evidently doesn't suit them.
Palace secured a crucial 1-0 win over Boro last weekend, but it's not necessarily an indicator of what's to come for the South London outfit.
The victory was only Allardyce's second since he arrived at the club and with four top-six sides still to play, including Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Manchester City at the Etihad and Manchester United at Old Trafford on the last day of the campaign, uncertainty still looms around Selhurst Park.
Crystal Palace's form is too sporadic to tip them for Premier League survival. They look likely to go down.
Verdict: Relegation
Hull City - 19th
Hull began the season with a deficit. They had just 13 players available to call on, but somehow, Mike Phelan managed to start the season in good form.
Hull's fine start soon turned disastrous as their lack of squad depth and behind-the-scenes problems saw them plummet down the table.
Phelan eventually made way for Marco Silva, a tactician who had experienced success in Portugal and Greece, but yet to test the icy waters of English football.
The advent of Silva has seen the Tigers improve a fair bit, but bar the decent performances against Liverpool and Manchester United, the Tigers remain insipid and well behind in the relegation battle.
There's only so much a good tactical approach can do.
Silva deserves credit for getting the most out of his players, but in the end, Hull lack the quality to stay up.
Robert Snodgrass and Jake Livermore's exits will come back to haunt the Tigers.
Silva is a good manager: he's got the energy, he's got the shrewdness, but he lacks the right tools for the job – it will be no fault of his if Hull goes down.
Verdict:Relegation
Sunderland - 20th
Sunderland have been the league's best escape artists for years now having stared relegation in the face on multiple occasions and still managed to beat the drop.
Most of the time, Sunderland's survival has been by their own design, yet they appear to be relying almost entirely on luck this term.
Jermain Defoe has done his best to keep the side from falling apart having scored 14 goals and registered two assists for the Black Cats, but he's just one man, his stupendous efforts are unlikely to be enough to save them from playing Championship football next season.
Cast your mind back to the start of the season, Sunderland had just lost to Middlesbrough and David Moyes, in one of the most honest post-match press conferences of the season, confirmed the fears of the club's fans.
Moyes asserted after being asked what his response would be to fans afraid of yet another relegation battle: "Well, they would probably be right because that's where they've been every other year for the last four years, so why would it suddenly change?"
A survival scrap is something the Scottish tactician and his players have been expecting since the start of the season, now that they're deeply rooted in it, their unpreparedness is clear for all to see.
Sunderland require more than just an in-form Defoe to stay up, they need a miracle. The Black Cats could very well finish the season in their current position – rock-bottom.
Verdict:Relegation
