Leeds United may have only just hit the top of the Championship table following a tricky start to the season both on and off the pitch, but they are now bookies favourites for top spot. Daniel Farke’s side opened their season with two draws which hardly gave fans optimism for the new season but they have since hit form with ten wins in the first seventeen games of the season. Leeds find themselves odd on favourites, with bookies such as GGBet offering short odds on them to win the Championship outright. Early pace setters Sunderland have dropped down to fourth in the odds behind Burnley whilst Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United are Leeds United’s biggest competition, sitting second favourites.
Expectations for this season were high, but with key players such as Archie Gray, Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter lost this summer it looked to be an uphill struggle for Daniel Farke. But good recruitment has seen Leeds challenging at the top of the table yet again. New right back Jayden Bogle has already had more goal contributions than Archie Gray, Ao Tanaka appears to be bargain of the century t just £3.6 million, Summerville has been cloned in the form of Largie Ramazani whilst Joe Rothwell has really found form in the kind of progressive midfielder that Leeds have really been lacking.
Earlier in the season, football analysts Opta gave Leeds a 37.5% chance of topping the table based on predictions from their supercomputer, 17% above their nearest rivals Sheffield United. Leeds feature highly in most of the Championship stats this season. Top for goals per match, top for possession, second for expected goals, third f tor clean sheets, top for shots, top for big chances and top for accurate passes. With Leeds high in the stats at each end of the pitch, things are looking pretty good for Daniel Farke’s promotion push.
Sheffield United beat Sunderland 1-0 on Friday night to go back top of the able, in a dramatic game which saw both teams down to ten men in the first half. Suspensions for Harry Souttar and Chris Mepham will put both teams under more pressure in the coming matches. With Sunderland dropping more points, not having won in six games, they now find themselves behind Burnley, leaving the two Yorkshire sides to scrap it out for top spot. Leeds have a chance to retake top spot with victory over Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
With the table starting to take shape and some of the early contenders dropping away, Leeds have it in their hands to win the Championship and achieve promotion back to the Premier League and the bookier agree.