The Sky Bet Championship gets the Monday night slot this weekend for what is a huge match in the race for promotion to the Premier League as Leeds United look to go back to the top of the table when they host Sunderland.
These two are two of the four teams who have galloped clear and having watched Burnley fail to win this weekend already, the intention of both will be to take advantage, which should lead to a wonderful conclusion to the weekend.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels with an extended build-up getting underway at 7pm ahead of the 8pm kick off at Elland Road.
Leeds United
There is little doubt that Leeds United have been the best team in the league this season but they haven’t been able to shake off the chasers in the race for automatic promotion. They won’t so much mind that Sheffield United took top spot from them at this stage because it will be all about securing a top two finish before they worry about the title, and a win here would move them seven points clear of Burnley with just 13 games remaining and that would be a real position of strength.
Leeds are in the position of being the top scorers in the division and they would have been the best defence in it too but for the ridiculous record of Burnley in this competition. Leeds are also the best team in the competition at home this term with a very healthy 13-2-1 record which has seen them bag 42 goals in those 16 games and concede just seven. The Whites are also on a run of six straight clean sheets in the league, which is a very strong record when you consider that in the last game they did concede their keeper basically threw two in.
Sunderland
Sunderland are enjoying a wonderful campaign and while there are still one or two doubts over whether a squad as young as theirs can keep up their promotion chase over 46 matches, a win here would really have them right in the mix. They head to Elland Road seven points behind Leeds but they would move to within four of them with a win and just five behind the leaders Sheffield United with 13 matches to go and those two opponents facing each other next week.
After their win over Luton last week, Sunderland are now unbeaten in eight matches and while they kept a clean sheet against the Hatters, their defence had just started creaking a little, however the Black Cats are beginning to purr a touch with the likes of Enzo le Fee coming in and adding a massive ounce of quality to their side. You would imagine that a fearless young squad will go to Elland Road and have a go and having avoided defeat at Burnley, Middlesbrough and Blackburn recently they shouldn’t be short of confidence.
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Team News
Daniel Farke has revealed some pretty positive information with regards to his available squad for this fixture list. The Leeds boss is missing just two players with Max Wober and Patrick Bamford the two to miss out here.
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris has confirmed that winger Romaine Mundle should be available for this clash after returning from injury. Alan Browne is another in contention for this one but the game comes too soon for Tommy Watson.
Betting
There is no doubt in my mind that Leeds United are the best team in this league and if they don’t falter mentally once that last international break comes along next month I would expect them to go up automatically and would be surprised if it isn’t as champions. That said, I think they are plenty short enough in a match against a side I had the misfortune of seeing the quality of first hand five days ago. Sunderland have a number of match winners in their side and certainly no shortage of class acts in their ranks so I don’t want to be on Leeds here. I’m not in a massive rush to take the Whites on at home even allowing for the prices though.
With that in mind, I’ll back out of the match betting and head for the both teams to score market where I think we can have both teams finding the net. Sunderland have plenty going for them in attacking areas but I still wouldn’t trust them defensively. I think Leeds’ defensive record is a lot better than the personnel that they have and I fancy they can creak to this Sunderland attack but going the other way Leeds generally score, especially at home. This isn’t must win for either side by any means but both would like to win and they are at their best when they are attacking. The reverse meeting finished 2-2 and whatever the end score is here I like both teams to score.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfred
