Aston Villa the final record on Leeds United and Marcelo Bielsa's search for Christmas number one

The song - written by Pigeon Detectives’ frontman Matt Bowman and comedian Micky P Kerr - spoofed Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and created the fantasy notion of Bielsa topping the UK’s top 40. Instead, in what is real life for United’s head coach, he will spend the weekend trying to reach Christmas Day with Leeds at the front of the Championship field.

Top of the league on December 25 is more than a symbolic honour in England’s second division. It has, for over a decade, been a guarantee of promotion for any club who find themselves there and Bielsa’s first Christmas in Leeds looks reassuringly white.

The lead is United’s by a single point and they will keep hold of first place through Tuesday’s festivities unless Norwich City turn that small deficit on its head over the next 24 hours. The table is a source of confidence for Bielsa’s squad, who sit on a run of five straight wins, but it is statistically significant too. Watford, in 2008, were the last club to top the Championship on Christmas Day and fail to fight their way out of the league.

Bielsa steadfastly refuses to be drawn into analysing United’s position or making predictions on the basis of it; too astute and well-travelled to count any chickens about promotion. His press conference yesterday was no exception. “As it’s a long competition any conclusion will be premature,” he said. “Every time I’m asked the same question in a different way but unfortunately I can’t give a different answer.

Marcelo Bielsa drops Leeds United transfer hint following Samuel Saiz exit“Imagine if I had to give you an answer with a level of certainty in it. For any lucid observer it would be an act of irresponsibility. We’ve only played half of the games.”

His caution suits a club who constantly fear the ice cracking beneath them but after six quick months with Leeds there is little Bielsa has not delivered, and few of his stated aims which have not been met.

His tactics clicked quickly and thoroughly and with only one Championship side still to play - Aston Villa away tomorrow - there is little sign of the division successfully working them out. The renovation of the club’s Thorp Arch training ground which Bielsa asked for and directed, installing sleeping quarters, relaxation areas for his squad and two-story academy building with office facilities and classrooms, is virtually complete. Bielsa, who resides in Wetherby these days, is happy to sleep at the complex when his hours demand it and wanted his players to be free to do the same.

The former Argentina coach played down the speed with which he has integrated himself into the Championship and English football. “Honestly, my adaptation was very natural,” he said. “When you have noble opponents with good intentions, when you have impartial referees, when you have impeccable organisation and high-quality pitches, the only challenge is to propose your style. That’s why I haven’t had any difficulties to adapt.”

The cultural shift - something Leeds anticipated and wanted when they recruited the Argentinian in June - has been vast under Bielsa and the league table shows the fruits of it. His squad have won five league games back-to-back and no Leeds side have won six on the bounce since the days when Dennis Wise was taking League One by the throat. It has not happened in the Championship since 1988, in the days of the old second division.

Leeds Fans United strike deal with Whites over future investment at Elland RoadTomorrow’s game at Villa Park is a more difficult fixture than most of the five behind them; a contest with the same jeopardy as the visit to West Bromwich Albion last month which ended in United’s heaviest defeat of the season. Villa concede goals as freely as they score them and Leeds, under Bielsa, are never shy in a gunfight but their 4-1 hammering at The Hawthorns is a salutary warning of what would happen on an off day.

“It’s the last rival we haven’t played against,” Bielsa said. “They’re a team with very significant offensive strengths. They are good in collective play and they are good individually. If we take into account these aspects they are very similar to West Brom.

“If you ask me if Villa have the players to get promoted, my answer is yes. Do they have the structure to go up? Yes. Do they have a brilliant head coach? Of course. But you have more than six teams with good players, good head coaches and good structure. We can’t draw conclusions now. We have to wait until the end of the season.”

Leeds, though, are making the division behind them work hard. West Brom go to Rotherham United this afternoon knowing a poor result there could leave them nine points behind United on Christmas Day. Middlesbrough, who travel to Reading later, are already trailing by that margin. Villa cut a dangerous team, unbeaten in a seven-game run which pitted them against five of the Championship’s top seven, but they are 12 points shy of United and yet to find a way into the play-off positions.

Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa voices regret over Samuel Saiz departureBielsa is reading nothing into it and nothing into the opportunity to pull 15 clear of Villa tomorrow. “The other day I was told that when Middlesbrough got promoted (in 2016) they had a 12-point difference and lost it,” he said. “Otherwise I would say you can’t lose a lead of 15 points.”

Bielsa is too modest and too circumspect to say it but Christmas leaves him on the edge of greatness at Elland Road. Easy come Marcelo, Heckingbottom had to go, as Bielsa Rhapsody puts it, and for the first time in years, no-one in Leeds is pining for days gone by.

For him, the cult status - a song in the charts, widespread fascination - feels uncomfortable. “I’m thankful,” he said, in response to questions about Bielsa Rhapsody, “but they give me an importance I honestly don’t deserve.

“Affection is the maximum aspiration for a person and when you receive affection it’s something you’re very thankful for. But we have to be careful when we see the reasons for this affection. In this case, I don’t deserve the recognition I’m getting.”

No-one in Leeds will hear a word of it.