Sunderland, West Bromwich and Middlesbrough's Championship play-off chances predicted by stats experts

Sunderland appear to be heading for a second Championship play-off battle in three seasons - and the stats experts believes their chances of success are high.

The Black Cats have exceeded expectations during Regis Le Bris’ first season on Wearside and will head into the final eight games of the season on the fringes of the race for automatic promotion. With the league campaign currently on hold for the final international break of the campaign, Sunderland lie in fourth place in the Championship table - but recent defeats against Leeds United, Hull City and fellow play-off contenders Coventry City have left them 11 points shy of the top two.

The title race now appears to be a three-horse race with leaders Leeds United and second placed Sheffield United both sat on 80 points and third placed Burnley sat just two points behind them. The positive for Sunderland is that their promotion hopes still remain very much alive and they hold a 12-point advantage on Bristol City, who currently sit just one place outside of the play-off spots.

Speaking after the Coventry defeat in their last game, Le Bris hinted attitudes towards the push for automatic promotion had changed.

He told The Echo: "It's hard at the moment to find just one reason to explain the whole the behaviour of the team, so I will have to analyse this. I think after the Leeds game our dynamic was broken a little it, probably our way thinking about automatic promotion. We played well but didn't get any points. After the Hull game we had a good reaction with two wins and a draw, but today we looked exhausted on the pitch. We didn't look like we had the energy to be competitive."

Sunderland will return to their promotion push with a home clash against Millwall next weekend and they will hope to start building momentum to take into the final run-in. With an exciting end to the campaign lying ahead, we take a look at the latest predicted final table provided by the stats experts at Opta.

Opta’s predicted final Championship table

Champions - 1. Leeds United (97 points) Promoted - 2. Sheffield United (95 points) Play-offs - 3. Burnley (93 points) 4. Sunderland (82 points) 5. Coventry City (71 points) 6. West Bromwich Albion (70 points) Staying for another season - 7. Bristol City (68 points) 8. Middlesbrough (65 points) 9. Sheffield Wednesday (62 points) 10. Watford (62 points) 11. Blackburn Rovers (62 points) 12. Millwall (61 points) 13. Norwich City (60 points) 14. Preston North End (59 points) 15. Queens Park Rangers (55 points) 16. Swansea City (97 points) 17. Portsmouth (52 points) 18. Hull City (52 points) 19. Oxford United (50 points) 20. Stoke City (48 points) Relegated - 21. Cardiff City (48 points) 22. Derby County (47 points) 23. Luton Town (44 points) 24. Plymouth Argyle (40 points)

Opta’s predicted play-off semi-finals and current chances of promotion via play-offs

1. Burnley (52.14%) v West Bromwich Albion (61.92%) 2. Sunderland (99.86%) v Coventry City (69.58%)

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