We have passed the halfway stage of the Championship season and it could not have gone much better for Swansea City.
Their record reads as follows: Played: 27; Won: 15; Drawn: 8; Lost: 4, Goals for: 35; Goals against: 15; Points: 53.
Only two teams better them on the last stat, with Norwich City and Brentford sitting first and second on 55 and 54 points respectively, with Swansea and the Bees having a game in hand on their rivals from Norfolk.
Over the past 10 days, Swansea have taken four points from games against their automatic promotion rivals in two entirely different affairs.
Against Thomas Frank's men Swansea had to dig deep, second best on the night after going a man and then a goal down. Step up man-of-the-moment Conor Hourihane, who rescued a point for the home side against the run of play. In contrast, Steve Cooper's side dominated Norwich last Friday from start to finish, running out deserved 2-0 winners over the league leaders.
It was another clean sheet for Swansea during a season in which they are on course to break defensive records such is their impressive rearguard action.
You can read all about the stats they are set to smash right here, and it is impressive stuff.
Who have been the standouts in that effort? Cooper likes to place emphasis on the collective, and he is absolutely right to do so. Since the switch to the three/five-at-the-back system after last season's restart, Swansea have looked nigh-on impenetrable at the back.
Playing five at the back, especially at home, is incorrectly seen as a negative tactic, but Cooper has got his system perfected to a tee, with Connor Roberts and Jake Bidwell given licence to roam on the right and left flanks respectively.
They are allowed freedom because of the three centre-backs, namely Marc Guehi, Ben Cabango and Ryan Bennett.
If one were to hold a vote for player of the season right now, those three would be on an increasingly long list of candidates.
Guehi and Cabango have been superb, especially considering their tender ages and relative lack of experience at this level.
And it is the father-figure of Bennett - a virtual veteran at 30 compared to his central defence team-mates - who is the glue (or rather the cement) helping keep out opposition strike forces.
Bennett is a defender's defender, always in the right place at the right time. He has a stealth-like quality, appearing from nowhere to snuff out danger with the minimum of fuss.
With his shirt tucked in at all times, Bennett has set the standard, playing in a no-nonsense fashion that others have recognised and adhered to. Matt Grimes wears the armband, but Bennett has commanded the respect of his team-mates in his performances.
One of his most impressive traits is his streetwise nature; against Cardiff City in the South Wales derby, he took one for the team and brought down Mark Harris in a dangerous position and did the same when Kieffer Moore was put through.
He knows when to tug a shirt, professionally foul an opponent and when to put his head in where it hurts. He also plays through the pain barrier. When he picked up a hamstring injury against Reading, he made sure he blocked the attempted shot before hitting the Liberty turf in obvious discomfort. That act summed up the man and player.
Guehi, and to a slightly lesser extent Cabango, have grabbed the headlines over the course of the first half of the season for their displays in Swansea shirt - and rightly so.
The on-loan Chelsea man has a huge future in the game and is arguably the best defender in the division right now, such is his potential. Cabango, too, is such a prospect for club and country, with a place at the Euros all but sewn up.
But Bennett deserves a great deal of credit for their progression; his organisational skills and his experience have meant Guehi and Cabango have had a safety net of sorts, should they need one.
He is effectively leading this young defensive unit by the scruff and helping them achieve the standards they are capable of.
Swansea's rock signed from Wolves on a free contract - albeit in a deal that includes add-ons should Swansea go up - at the start of the campaign. By the end of it, he could achieve Premier League promotion and set up a reunion with his former employers.
If Cooper's men do make it back to the promised land, it will be down in no small part to Bennett's influence.
