Looking to keep their hopes of an immediate return to the Premier League via the automatic promotion spots alive, Leeds United will welcome a misfiring Birmingham City side to Elland Road on New Year’s Day in the Championship.
The Whites have fallen further behind the pacesetters at the top of the division following back-to-back losses, while Blues are slowly being drawn towards the bottom three under the controversial management of Wayne Rooney.
For the first time in Daniel Farke’s largely-productive reign in charge at Elland Road, Leeds United were condemned to successive defeats in the Championship after a lacklustre display against West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns, with Carlos Corberan’s men closing the gap to their fourth-placed visitors with maximum points.
Despite fielding a forward four which boasted 42 goal contributions between them this season, the Whites were unable to seriously test the credentials of Albion goalkeeper Alex Palmer, while at the other end a Jed Wallace and John Swift masterclass helped Grady Diangana bag the game-winning goal in the first half, clawing the Baggies within striking distance of Leeds at the conclusion of 2023.
Following a run of one win in their last five second-tier contests, Farke’s men will be delighted on Monday afternoon to hear the roar of the raucous crowd at Elland Road, where they are currently unbeaten and harbour positive recent memories, as goals from Joel Piroe and Crysencio Summerville fired the Whites to a 4-0 smashing of Ipswich Town last time out in Yorkshire.
Only Blackburn Rovers and relegation-threatened Queens Park Rangers have collected fewer than Leeds’ four points in the last five Championship matches, allowing Southampton to leapfrog them into third place amid their 17-game unbeaten spell, with Monday’s hosts nine points off the automatic promotion spots ahead of the visit of Birmingham.
Some notable names have taken centre stage in this fixture over the last few years, with Jude Bellingham netting in a nine-goal thriller between the sides at St Andrew’s in December 2019,
while Kalvin Phillips scored the game’s only goal the last time Leeds and the Birmingham met at Elland Road during the campaign that the Whites sealed a return to the top flight following a nearly two-decade absence.
