Leeds United are hoping to get their Championship season up and running as they face a tricky game away at Birmingham City this weekend.
Birmingham City currently sit 12th in the EFL Championship having drawn their opening game of the season.
The Blues faced an opening weekend trip to Wales in what was a tricky fixture away at Swansea City, but John Eustace's side claimed a commendable point in a 1-1 draw.
New signing Siriki Dembélé opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time before Jerry Yates equalised with just fifteen minutes remaining.
Birmingham will have been kicking themselves having been presented with a couple of big chances to win the game late, but overall they'll be happy with the point at a tough venue.
Many people are high on The Blues' chances this season having survived relegation against the odds last season before investing in the squad this summer and they've started the season in encouraging fashion.
Birmingham followed up the point at Swansea with a 2-0 win away at Cheltenham Town in the EFL Cup in Tuesday night courtesy of a brace from Juninho Bacuna.
Eustace fielded a much-changed XI for that game and his side still completed the job in a professional manner so they're coming into the game this weekend win excellent shape.
If Birmingham can take three points from this one it will be a huge statement to the rest of the league and on their own patch they're likely going to give as good as they get here.
Leeds United currently sit 11th in the Championship after drawing their opening game of the season.
Newly relegated from the Premier League, Leeds opened their Championship account with a solitary point after being held to a 2-2 draw at home to Cardiff City.
Leeds found themselves 0-2 down at half-time owing to a pair of lapse defensive moments that allowed an otherwise impotent Cardiff side to accrue a two-goal lead against the run of play.
Leeds looked structurally impressive, despite being clearly incomplete from a squad building standpoint, and dominated the game, eventually making their pressure pay dividends with Crysencio Summerville netting an injury-time equaliser to seal a 2-2 draw after Liam Cooper had reduced the deficit to one goal early in the first-half.
All in all manager Daniel Farke would have been satisfied with his side's showing even if it did expose the need for further additions to what is a thin squad in terms of quality.
The Whites then welcomed League One Shrewsbury Town to Elland Road in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night, with a heavily rotated starting XI securing a 2-1 win in what was an unconvincing performance.
Leeds posses some envious individual quality through the likes of Summerville, Wilfried Gnonto and Luis Sinisterra and the interlinking play of those three against Cardiff showed they have the potential to be a step ahead of the rest of the league, but old problems have already begun to rear their ugly heads as defensive frailty continues to plague the Yorkshire side.
Reports this week confirmed Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Joe Rodon is on the verge of completing a loan move to Leeds and his addition is a huge step in the right direction in terms of defensive bodies.
A reliable number nine is still a huge must for Leeds, however, amongst other things so until the transfer window is done expectations must be tempered.
One can't help but feel if they don't deliver a convincing performance backed by three points in the opening weeks they risk immediately falling into a rut, with fan discontent potentially spilling over from a hostile campaign last season.
This is a tough game for Daniel Farke and Leeds and not one in which three points will come easily.
For our Birmingham vs. Leeds prediction, we're going for a 1-1 draw.
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