Bristol City v Leeds United betting preview, team news, free tip & TV details

Sky Bet Championship
Sky Sports Football, 4.30pm Sunday

Bristol City's Lee Johnson twice lost his tactical battle with Leeds's Marcelo Bielsa in last season’s Sky Bet Championship campaign and the wily Argentinian can complete the hat-trick at Ashton Gate.

Leeds beat Bristol City 2-0 at Elland Road in November and then ran out 1-0 winners in the return fixture in March.

These clubs have met 14 times in the Championship since 2010 and Bristol City have won just one of those matches.

That superiority was mirrored in last term’s league positions with Leeds coming home third, 13 points and five places ahead of Johnson’s men.

And that superiority can be realised again with the hosts reeling from the sale of ace centre-back and player-of-the-year Adam Webster to Brighton.

The loss of Webster is a major blow because it also impacts on his former partner, Tomas Kalas.

They also flogged full-back Lloyd Kelly to Bournemouth while anchor man Korey Smith is crocked, so City are some way from their strongest defensively.

City won only eight times at home last term while Leeds were successful 11 times away.

Bielsa’s men, denied a place in the playoff final by Derby, were generally impressive last season, just fading occasionally on the run-in to allow Norwich and Sheffield United to storm away.

He has been experimenting with a 3-3-1-3 formation over the summer - it was his system of preference before he arrived in Yorkshire - and adding players such as Ben White and Helder Costa into the mix certainly enables him to use that shape as the league campaign begins.

Recommendation
Leeds
1pt 7-5 bet365, Betfred, RedZone
Bet on this match at Soccerbase.com

Team news

Bristol City
Keeper Niki Maenpaa and midfielder Korey Smith are injured. Antoine Semenyo is suspended.

Leeds
Luke Ayling, Tyler Roberts and Kemar Roofe are all out. Jamie Shackleton has recovered from a thigh problem.

Key stat
Eighth-placed City had the joint-fewest home wins in 2018-19 of any side in the top 16.

Today's top sports betting stories

Follow us on Twitter @racingpostsport

Like us on Facebook RacingPostSport