Leeds United have been promoted back to the Premier League after two years in the Championship.
The Whites secured promotion with two games to spare after Sheffield United lost at second-placed Burnley, a result which meant the Clarets also confirmed their return to the top flight.
Daniel Farke’s men had crushed Stoke City 6-0 in their own game earlier on Monday to leave promotion a mere formality.
They will win the title with victories over Bristol City and Plymouth Argyle in their final two matches, barring a mathematical miracle goal difference swing from Burnley.
Leeds finished third with 90 points in 2023-24 before losing to Southampton in the play-off final.
The summer saw highly-rated academy product Archie Gray sold to Tottenham, while Championship player of the season Crysencio Summerville left for West Ham. Those exits had seemed likely but the sale of talented forward Georginio Rutter to Brighton after the season had started was unexpected and unwelcome.
Still, the Whites boasted a strong squad for the level and the permanent additions of Spurs defender Joe Rodon after his loan last season, ex-Sheffield United full-back Jayden Bogle and Japan international midfielder Ao Tanaka, plus the loan signings of Joe Rothwell and Manor Solomon from Bournemouth and Tottenham respectively, all brought quality.
On the pitch the campaign started with no wins from their first three games in all competitions but they kickstarted things with a 2-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday and scarcely looked back.
Despite a narrow home defeat by fellow promotion hopefuls Burnley on 14 September, to date their only loss at Elland Road this season, by the third international break of the season in November, Leeds had risen up to second.
After ending that month with a 1-0 home defeat at Blackburn they then went on a three-month unbeaten run in the league that included a 7-0 demolition of Cardiff and dramatic comebacks to beat top-four rivals Sunderland Sheffield United on successive Mondays in February.
The victory over the Blades left them five points clear at the top and, with a seemingly favourable run of fixtures until the end of the campaign, promotion looked inevitable.
However, March brought just one win from five and the 2-2 draw with Swansea saw Farke drop goalkeeper Illan Meslier for Karl Darlow after the Frenchman, who had also made costly errors in draws at Sunderland and Hull City, gifted the Welsh side their first equaliser.
The German boss was then criticised by some after saying the point from the 1-1 draw at lowly Luton in the next game was a good result but it proved to be the case as the Blades totally lost their way with three successive defeats and the Whites went from third back to first and five points clear of Chris Wilder’s men in third with three games to play.
Monday’s demolition of struggling Stoke meant that, thanks to a vastly superior goal difference, a point from their final two matches would have been enough to go up but even that was not needed thanks to Burnley’s win.
Farke, who had chosen not to make any further signings in the January transfer window, is now closing in on a third title at this level after winning two with Norwich.
A huge summer awaits as Leeds look to buck the worrying trend that appears set to see all of the past six teams promoted to the Premier League go straight back down.
Plans to avoid that fate will now truly begin in earnest on Tuesday but for now Farke and the Leeds fans, robbed of being able to properly celebrate their last promotion to the top flight in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, can enjoy a job well done.
