Leeds United supercomputer flaw and 'bluffer' prediction of where points come in final seven games

If looking at the actual Premier League table doesn't sufficiently fill Leeds United fans with confidence ahead of the relegation run-in, there's always the one the supercomputer dreams up.

Right now, the one produced by data firm FiveThirtyEight, using their forecasts and 'Soccer Power Index' ratings to predict every fixture, has Leeds sitting pretty in 16th with a mighty 37 points come the final whistle of the 2022/23 top flight season. That's a full eight points more than Javi Gracia's men have to their name right now.

According to their simulations of the rest of the campaign, FiveThirtyEight are tipping Southampton to finish bottom with Nottingham Forest and Everton dropping into the Championship with them. Phew!

Even after the combined 11-2 scoreline from Leeds' last two games, a pair of brutal defeats at the hands of Crystal Palace and Liverpool, the bookies agree with the data folk. They have the Whites fifth favourites for the drop at 5/2.

There you have it. Relax. Turn up at Craven Cottage on Saturday for the Fulham game and enjoy a day out in the nation's capital, before a beautiful spring evening Elland Road soirée with Leicester City on Tuesday. The points will come, safety will beckon and on August 12 the Premier League's warm embrace will envelop Leeds United once again.

If only it was that simple. As anyone with an ounce of sense, or even the slightest experience of following a football team will tell you, there is no telling what could happen between now and the end of the Spurs game in May. Anyone who confidently expounds a prediction either way on Leeds' top flight fate is either a bluffer or a pessimist.