Championship promotion race: Leeds United's next six fixtures compared to Leicester City, Ipswich and rivals

Leeds United ensured they went into the international break on the back of a win, defeating Plymouth Argyle 2-1 at home. The Whites now have three wins on the bounce, also seeing off Leicester City and Huddersfield Town recently.

Daniel Farke's men were patchy early in the season, sruggling to overcome some of the moving parts while the summer transfer window remained open. But since the closure of the window and with Farke's squad settling down, they have gone from strength to strength, quickly becoming one of the most entertaining teams in the Championship.

As things stand, Leeds are eight points behind both leaders Leicester City and second placed Ipswich Town, both of which put together excellent starts to the campaign. But the gap to Leicester has eroded from 14 points to eight within the last two games games alone, and the promotion race is already beginning to heat up despite there being more than half of the season still to play.

While the Championship playoff race usually remains wide open until early spring, we usually get a good idea of the teams who are going to compete for the top two spots by Christmas. With that in mind, we have rounded up the next six fixtures for each of the Championship's top eight to see which of the clubs may be up there by the time the festive fixtures come around. Take a look below.

Leicester City's next six games (39 points): Watford (H), Sheffield Wednesday (A), West Brom (A), Plymouth (H), Millwall (H), Birmingham (A).

Ipswich Town's next six games (39 points): West Brom (A), Millwall (H), Coventry (H), Middlesbrough (A), Watford (A), Norwich (H).

Leeds United's next six games (31 points): Rotherham (A), Swansea (H), Middlesbrough (H), Blackburn (A), Sunderland (A), Coventry (H).

Southampton's next six games (30 points): Huddersfield (A), Bristol City (H), Cardiff (H), Watford (A), Coventry (A), Blackburn (H).

Preston's next six games (28 points): Cardiff (H), Middlesbrough (A), QPR (H), Norwich (A), Huddersfield (A), Watford (H).

Sunderland's next six games (26 points): Plymouth (A), Huddersfield (H), Millwall (A), West Brom (H), Leeds (H), Bristol City (A).

West Brom's next six games (26 points): Ipswich (H), Cardiff (A), Leicester (H), Sunderland (A), Rotherham (A), Stoke (H).

Hull's next six games (26 points): Swansea (A), Rotherham (H), Watford (H), QPR (A), Middlesbrough (A), Cardiff (H).