When speaking exclusively to Football League World Scott Minto said: “I did think that Leeds would be a little bit higher up the league and have a bit of a gap.”
Leeds are currently third in the Championship, however the gap to leaders West Brom is just two points. Another positive to take into account is the fact that the Peacocks have already played the two sides above them, drawing with Preston on 22nd October and beating West Brom 1-0 on the 1st October.
Elland Road is also becoming a fortress this year, with Leeds only losing once at home so far in the Championship. Their only other two losses came away to Millwall and Charlton, however, the Peacocks were a man down against Millwall.
When speaking about Leeds’ next fixures, Minto said: “They have some very winnable games coming up so this period going into the Christmas, they have a massive opportunity to create a gap between themselves and the rest.”
This would appear to be very true, with Leeds not playing any current top-six team until 26th December 2019, which is a tough home match against Preston.
“But if they’re six points ahead, or maybe more, I look at their games and I think they’re more than capable of winning every single one of those,” Minto added.
“The nature of the Championship tells me that they won’t, but by the time you get to Christmas there could be a good gap between them and the rest.”
We also agree with Minto on this, when looking at their fixtures, all the way up till next year you can’t make too many cases for them dropping points, however, unless Leeds go on an amazing run of form they will drop points, some of the fixtures we think could be difficult are:
Huddersfield v Leeds (7th December 2019)
Since dropping down to the Championship Huddersfield have had a horrible time, currently sat 18th in the league, however, their form is turning around with four wins in the last six matches. So Leeds will have to be on their toes if they are to get past this one untouched.
Leeds v Preston (26th December 2019)
This is a particularly feisty affair, with three red cards in the last six meetings, 26th December could be one of the toughest games of the season. Leeds managed to walk away with a draw in the reverse fixture, so Bielsa might just take a point here and move onto the next one.
West Brom v Leeds (1st January 2020)
Currently leading the way in the Championship, this fixture needs no introduction. West Brom are flying high losing just once in their last six games. Leeds are currently in good form against West Brom, winning the last two times the clubs have met, however, before that Bielsa’s side were on a four-game losing streak against the league leaders, so they will be very nervous about starting a new year with this one.
If Leeds can navigate their way past this lot then they should be alright, and by the time we roll into the new year they could be top, having played much easier fixtures than these ones.