Leeds United are eyeing a return to the Championship’s summit as they welcome bottom club Ipswich Town to Elland Road this evening (7:45pm).

Hope breeds expectation. Expectation breeds pressure. Pressure can breed struggles. Struggles breed strife. Strife breeds apathy. Apathy breeds sneering, idle contempt.

Last season, Andrea Radrizzani’s takeover and Leeds United’s sprightly start to the campaign suffused supporters with great hope. They came to expect great things of the team. The team, under pressure to which they had never been subjected, struggled. They won just one match in October. The ensuing strife threatened to breed apathy and then contempt, though they briefly recovered in wintertime.

Nonetheless, a barren run in the new year did for Thomas Christiansen, and the appointment of Paul Heckingbottom in his place was no antidote for the malady that hindered the team. It was sick and it coughed and spluttered and staggered toward the anodyne of mid-table mediocrity. There was no great ebullition from the supporters as all this occurred. No outburst of anguish, no cry of betrayal, no pitchforks and riots. Their apathy merely morphed into sneering, idle contempt. Contempt for Heckingbottom, contempt for the players, contempt for the man who signed them.

Until recently, all this was but a distant memory. Like an atrabilious trip to Skegness. It rained. An esteemed member of the underclass stole your wallet. Your family was miserable. You went home and vowed never to come back. Then you went to Spain, basked in the glorious sunlight, gleefully gulped delicious alcohol and seemingly eradicated from your mind that dreadful trip to the Third World.

But then, somewhere along the line, something occured that evoked the memory of that confounded day. Even the very recollection of the memory, the torturous replaying of it in the mind, is enough to elicit a portentous shudder and an awful feeling that the ghost of last season is about to give you a gelid tap on the shoulder.

That is essentially what has happened at Elland Road. Radrizzani saw fit to dispose of the hopeless Heckingbottom, and made a rather exotic appointment in Marcelo Bielsa. From Skegness to Patagonia.

Throughout August and early September, as the sun shone, many Leeds supporters smiled and devoured beer as their team did the same to their opponents. Stoke. Derby. Norwich. Preston. All were humbled in a sort of sneeringly nonchalant fashion - and the fans loved it.

Then came Birmingham, Blackburn and two dour draws. With them, memories of last season’s implosion. The meek defending for the goals bore an eerie resemblance to the dismal dystopia of 2017-18. The press now licks its lips, ravenous for it all to blow up in United’s faces once again.

The pattern is repeating itself, they say. As it happens, they are, at least for now, correct. Leeds have won just once this October, as they did under Christiansen. Are they becoming sick again? Will they again cough and splutter and stagger to the anodyne of mid-table?

Marcelo Bielsa is the most erudite man, and United must count on him having the answers. If he fails to come up with them, goodness knows what sort of hellacious, Skegness-like dimension they will find themselves transported to. It might even be worse than last season’s.

Thankfully, working out a formula with which to beat lowly Ipswich should be as facile as making an omelette for the Argentine. A convincing win, though against feeble opposition, would do Leeds the world of good at this time.

Team News:

Notably, Leeds are without the services of Barry Douglas and Pontus Jansson. Douglas remains sidelined with a hamstring injury, and Jansson is suspended after the FA quite ludicrously saw fit to issue him a one-match ban. Patrick Bamford is still out with his severe knee injury.

Ipswich are without striker Jonathan Walters and midfielder Teddy Bishop. Left-back Jonas Knudsen and midfielder Jon Nolan are in contention for starts after the Blues fell to a 2-0 home defeat by QPR last time out.

Recent League Form:

Leeds: LDWDL

Ipswich: DDLWL

One to Watch: Jack Harrison, Leeds

Manchester City loanee Harrison has scarcely featured for United in recent matches, but the poor form of Ezgjan Alioski means that he will certainly play a role for them tonight. His predilection for taking players on and his great agility make him a nuisance for defenders, and Leeds are in dire need of some more venturesome play in the final third.

Referee: Craig Pawson, Sheffield

39-year-old Pawson is currently a FIFA-listed and Premier League referee. We can only speculate as to why somebody of his standing has been assigned to oversee a Leeds game in the wake of Jeremy Simpson’s comical performance earlier in the month.

Writer’s Prediction: Leeds United 3-0 Ipswich Town

The visit of lowly Ipswich is rather serendipitous for Leeds. Town have won just once all season, and possess a squad primarily comprised of lower-league upstarts plucked from the likes of Accrington Stanley and other such eminent clubs that no doubt command worldwide respect.

Paul Hurst, who guided Shrewsbury Town to the League One play-off final last season, is no stranger to working with a limited budget, but this fact does not appear to have served him as well as some thought it might after the notoriously parsimonious Marcus Evans headhunted him in the summer.

It should really come as no surprise that the Suffolk side are floundering given their aversion to investing in the playing staff at Portman Road, and this is a match that Leeds must unquestionably, and convincingly, win.

Only Rotherham (10) have scored fewer goals than Ipswich (11), and only Middlesbrough (7) have conceded fewer than United (11).

Tonight presents a fantastic opportunity for Leeds to try and reclaim top spot, and I cannot look past them for this match. Ipswich's nickname may be the Tractor Boys, but they have been nothing other than the whipping boys thus far this season and the home side should really be winning this match. If they are a little more incisive in the final third than they were in Lancashire at the weekend, they will win.

Photo: Action Images

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