Leeds United will be looking to end their four-match winless run when they travel to Crystal Palace on Sunday. The Whites are without a victory since their impressive 3-0 demolition of Chelsea, picking up just four points from matches against Brighton, Everton, Brentford and Aston Villa.
Palace, meanwhile, will also be looking to kick start their season into action as they sit 17 th with just one win on the board. Performances from Patrick Vieira’s side suggest they should be higher, but despite their frustrating start, Palace have already faced Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea.
The league is yet to really take shape so far, with the table looking extremely congested from around sixth to 18 th . That is reflected strongly in Leeds’ best and worst-case scenarios this weekend, and so with that in mind, here is a look at each of them.
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Best-case
A quick glance of the points columns for each side would suggest Leeds can move as high as sixth come the weekend’s close of play. However, it would take a very specific set of results for that to happen given that four of the six sides between Leeds and Manchester United (12 th -6 th ) face each other.
What’s more likely, however, is the potential to climb up to eighth, if Leeds come away from Selhurst Park with all three points. Jesse Marsch’s side could quite conceivably move ahead of Everton, Brentford, Liverpool and Fulham this weekend, as they face matches against Man United, Newcastle, Arsenal and West Ham respectively.
Worst-case
While that sounds promising, Leeds could also move as low as 17 th with a defeat. Should Palace – who currently occupy the final position outside of the bottom three - defeat the Whites by two or more goals, they would move above them.
As well as Palace, an avoiding of defeat for Bournemouth against Leicester City, a win for Aston Villa at Nottingham Forest, three points for West Ham against Fulham and victory for Southampton at Manchester City would also see those four sides move ahead of Leeds. Of course, that is unlikely all to happen, but it shows just precarious the table is right now.
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