Gus Poyet and Chris Sutton in ‘no doubt’ over Leeds United’s fate this season amid Southampton slip-up

Pundits are still backing Leeds United to secure promotion to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

The Whites have had a mixed start to life back in the Championship, currently sitting eighth after a reality check of sorts against Southampton last time out. Daniel Farke’s men had put together a strong run of form ahead of their trip South, but they now go into Wednesday’s home clash with QPR hoping to bounce back from their second defeat of the season.

Leeds are one of the favourites to win automatic promotion this season, armed with a strong squad, and a strong front-line in particular.

And in spite of their defeat to Southampton, Carlton Palmer believes Leeds are still the team to watch as far as automatic promotion goes.

He told Football League World: “I think Leicester are very strong and Maresca has done a fantastic job thus far. It’s still early in the season, but they’re going to take a lot of stopping. I predicted Leeds and Leicester to go up automatically, and I am sticking to that prediction.”

Those thoughts were echoed by former Brighton boss Gus Poyet, who told the same publication recently: “Joel Piroe has made a very good start to his time at Leeds and I think it was a good buy.

“The rumours suggest it was an expensive purchase for the Championship, although we don’t officially know the price, but if you have a good number nine, as well as a good goalkeeper, then half of your job as the coach is done.

“I think his impact has been tremendous and if he can maintain this level of performance then I have no doubts that he will keep scoring and Leeds will be promoted.”

The promotion predictions don’t end there, either, with pundit Chris Sutton telling talkSPORT before the season kicked off: “With the likes of Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho still on Leicester’s books, they have too much for this division. Daniel Farke won promotion twice at Norwich and he’ll do it again at Leeds, while Saints’ youngsters will go well for Russell Martin.”