Leeds United’s race to return to the Premier League will almost probably come down to the final day of the Championship season, with four teams still in contention for the title and automatic promotion slots.
Ipswich Town, Leicester City, and now Southampton, plus Leeds, have a realistic chance of finishing first or second and avoiding the dreadful playoffs. On Tuesday night, the Saints moved firmly into the automatic promotion picture with a first-half brace from Che Adams, followed by a Stuart Armstrong goal, to defeat Preston North End 3-0.
That result put Russell Martin’s side three points behind Leeds, with a game in hand. That game in hand will be played a week from Tuesday against fellow promotion contenders Leicester.
If the Championship promotion competition continues in the same vein as it has this season, there is a good chance that at least two teams, if not three or four, will have identical point totals by the end. With this in mind, Leeds Live has looked at the process the EFL will use to separate them.
The first step will be to split the teams based on goal difference. Leeds and Leicester are currently separated by only one goal, thus other measures may be required to determine who moves on and who makes the playoffs.
If the goal difference is also equal, teams will be separated in the following order: goals scored, most points in head-to-head matches, goal difference in head-to-head games, and goals scored in those games. In the odd event that the teams are still not separated after all of this, the final standings will be determined by the number of wins, followed by goals scored away.
