With just eight games of the Sky Bet Championship season to go, nobody is any closer to working out who will be in the Premier League by the time September rolls around.

Two sides are level on points at the very summit of the table, with only ten points separating the top eight, all of whom have as good a chance as anyone to make it into the play-offs.

However, there is one team with perhaps the best opportunity than any other in the promotion mix. Having already beaten former table-toppers Ipswich and Derby in the last week, Middlesbrough go into the final stretch of the season with five of the top eight still to play.

Boro's season has been a remarkable one, showing a dramatic turnaround from the painful mediocrity of 2013/14. A marathon penalty shoot-out defeat to Liverpool after a 120th-minute equaliser from Chelsea loan star Patrick Bamford was needed to dump them from the Capital One Cup, while English champions Manchester City were ousted from the FA Cup in stunning fashion.

Former Real Madrid defender and José Mourinho protégé Aitor Karanka has brought the good feeling back to Teesside in a big way, to the point that a limp 2-0 defeat to in-form Arsenal at the Emirates was a source of genuine disappointment.

Recent defeats to Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest threatened to derail the Middlesbrough machine, with mutterings of 'typical Boro' bubbling under at the Riverside. However, a blistering start to their self-titled 'Week of Destiny' has got the wagon rolling once more, all but ending Ipswich's hopes of automatic promotion and putting a serious dent in Derby's.

With the tightest defence in the division, the main criticism levelled at Boro has been an inability to score goals - their tally of 59 is the lowest in the current top six, 20 strikes behind next opponents Bournemouth.

With a loan offer with a view to buy tabled for Blackburn hotshot Jordan Rhodes - which is still awaiting a reply from the Venkys - Boro responded in style, Patrick Bamford rising to his manager's clear challenge and scoring three excellent goals in the last two games.

Against Ipswich, they were perhaps fortunate to come away with a 4-1 victory having struggled to pick apart the Tractor Boys' defence in the first half. At Derby in midweek, however, they were imperious and could easily have had more, Jelle Vossen striking the base of a post from 40 yards and Bamford having a late penalty should waved away having been hacked and harried all game by his former employers.

However, under Karanka's tutelage one may only look to the future - and the prospect of five promotion six-pointers in the space of eight games has the Spaniard champing at the bit.

"If someone said we would be in this situation [at the start of the season], I would have thought he was crazy," the 41-year-old said. 

In his first full season in professional management, Karanka has handled the pressure admirably and looks to be continuing in the same way. For him, the next two months pose a challenge and an opportunity rather than an obstacle to his progress.

"We know how difficult it is to be in this position and how difficult it is to win every single point, so now we have to work again," he added.

Karanka has lavished his squad with praise in recent days, from the bit-part role being played by stand-in veteran Jonathan Woodgate to the goalscoring form of relative rookie Bamford. It is hard to disagree with his assessment that his team has been "brilliant" in the last week or so, and man-for-man they do appear to have the strongest squad in the Championship.

Dimi Konstantopoulos, the former Hartlepool favourite, has been immense in between the sticks since making the number one shirt his own. In Ben Gibson and Jonathan Woodgate, they have two defenders who bleed red - quite naturally - for Teesside, and few players have been adored at the Riverside in the last decade more than bucaneering left-back 'gorgeous' George Friend.

The midfield pivot of captain Grant Leadbitter and the lustrously-bearded Adam Clayton is among the best in the league. Albert Adomah has talent to burn and the experience to make it count, while Lee Tomlin has been a man transformed this term, as shown by his bewildering piece of skill to embarrass Vincent Kompany and strike the post against Man City.

Up front, things are perhaps less secure. Main summer target Kike has found the net on occasion without any degree of consistency and cuts a frustratingly selfish figure at times, while Belgian international Jelle Vossen has been dreadfully unlucky throughout the season despite putting in invariably good performances.

Bamford is one of English football's hottest prospects, and parent club Chelsea are expected to send him out on loan to a fellow Premier League side next season as the next stage in his development. Free-scoring and confident, he has been on fire in the last two games but any injury or loss of form could derail his side's promotion push. Here, the potential acquisition of Rhodes could be crucial.

As good as they may be, the simple fact of the matter is that all of their hard work will eventually come down to a series of crunch ties. With the league's most potent attack coming up against its most stringent defence this weekend as Boro travel to Bournemouth, the sense of anticipation around the club is tangible. Now, the team must show its mettle.