Sheffield United warned about damning statistic that could see Burnley beat them to automatic promotion

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The Championship’s automatic promotion is as exciting as ever, with Leeds United, Burnley and Sheffield United the three fighting it out.

It’s very tight at the top, with Leeds and the Blades both on 80 points, while Burnley are just behind on 78 points.

However, Leeds have a clear advantage in terms of how many goals they score – having notched 76 so far this season, compared to 53 and 52 for Sheffield United and Burnley respectively.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LeedsLeeds	38	23	11	4	76	25	51	80
2	Sheff UtdSheffield Utd	38	25	7	6	53	28	25	80
3	BurnleyBurnley	38	21	15	2	52	11	41	78

Despite the closeness in points, Leeds are the clear favourites to win the Championship according to bookmakers.

Therefore with just two automatic promotion places in the division, it’s up to the Blades and the Clarets to battle it out and get the last spot to avoid the dreaded play-offs.

However, Burnley fans are already raging over the FA’s “bizarre” decision for their game against Bristol City.

Sheffield United’s unwanted goalscoring record could let them down

Making predictions for who will go up from the Championship, EFL expert Adrian Clarke shared a key statistic that could determine the automatic promotion race.

Speaking on the What The EFL podcast, Clarke said he predicts Leeds and Burnley will go up automatically, with Sheffield United having to win the play-offs to get back into the Premier League.

He shared why he believes Burnley will just have the edge in the race: “The thing that I can’t get away from is that Sheffield United have scored three goals or more in two of 38 matches.”

“It staggers me that they’ve got as many points as they have very rarely scoring more than two goals in a game,” he continued. “I just think will that come back to bite them in the run-in, if they make slip-ups at the back they’re going to drop points.”

However, Clarke has backed the Blades to go up via the play-offs, beating Coventry City in the final.

Of course, with how tight it is at the top, anything could happen in the weeks that remain and one expert believes that Leeds have the worst chance of making it through the play-offs if they fall away from the top spot.

Burnley also risk losing Josh Brownhill to Monaco or Premier League teams if they miss out on promotion.

Leeds United winning the title is helped by their remaining fixtures

Adrian Clarke also spoke in detail about why he believes Leeds are destined to win the Championship this season.

Despite The Whites having a wobble he’s confident they’re going up, telling listeners of the What The EFL podcast: “They’ve got four very winnable home games. They’ve got the bottom two away, Oxford away as well which is very winnable for a team like them.”

“You’d probably say that Boro at the Riverside is the toughest one and I wouldn’t be surprised if they went there and won as well,” he said. “I do think Leeds will be champions. I think they’ve got the firepower.”

However, as Whites fans will know, they cannot take anything for granted at this stage. Leeds supporters want to see Junior Firpo used further forward in order for them to secure promotion.

If any of the three miss out on promotion entirely, they could face a tough promotion challenge from Southampton next season due to financial reasons.