Championship playoff final: Who will win promotion?

There is just one coveted place in next season's Premier League up for grabs and two teams seeking to claim it in Sunday's Championship playoff final.

Adrian Kajumba takes a look at Leeds United and Southampton as they prepare to fight for a return to the top flight at Wembley Stadium at 15:00 BST.

Championship 2023/24 meetings
30 Sep: Southampton 3-1 Leeds
4 May: Leeds 1-2 Southampton

Leeds United

Leeds hoped that, like Championship title-winners Leicester City, relegation from the Premier League in 2023 would be followed by automatic promotion from the second tier a year later.

But a run of only two wins in their final eight matches saw Leeds fall from top spot in mid-March to a third-place finish.

Leeds were a Premier League club for each of the competition's first 12 seasons, securing seven top-five finishes along the way. 

But following their relegation in 2003/04, Leeds spent 16 years away, including a spell in League One, before finding their way back to the top division in 2020 and having three seasons in the Premier League. 

They might consider themselves unfortunate not to have already sealed promotion after becoming the first side since Sunderland in 1998 to win 90+ points and not go up automatically. 

Leeds may also not exactly be thrilled that their fate will be decided in the playoffs, having failed to win any of their five previous attempts to go up by this route.

But a more encouraging statistic is that on nine occasions out of 19 - almost 50 per cent - since the Championship’s 2004 rebrand, the team finishing third have ended up winning promotion via the playoffs.

Ones to watch

Winger Crysencio Summerville, who has netted 20 Championship goals this season, completed the scoring in the 4-0 playoff semi-final success over Norwich City.

Summerville's goal v Norwich

Former Chelsea defender Ethan Ampadu has started every Championship match, while young midfielder Archie Gray will be key to manager Daniel Farke’s hopes of a third promotion, after he twice took Norwich up to the Premier League.

Striker Patrick Bamford will also be influential, if he recovers from a knee injury.

Southampton 

A top-two finish was Southampton’s aim, having only dropped out of the Premier League themselves a year ago. But a playoff spot will not have come as the biggest surprise given how their season unfolded. 

Southampton spent most of the 2023/24 campaign on the outside looking in at the automatic places, and ultimately finished fourth.

Saints had a promising start before suffering four straight defeats in September and teething problems with new manager Russell Martin's possession-based, passing philosophy.

However, this proved only a minor hiccup and they then embarked on a club-record 25-match unbeaten run, including 22 league matches, to cement their position in the promotion mix.

Three defeats in one April week - including a 5-0 thrashing at Leicester in the second of those matches - all but ended their automatic hopes. But realistically, Martin and his players had been mentally preparing for the playoffs before the Leicester defeat.

This will be Southampton’s second playoff campaign after their 2007 semi-final defeat to Derby County - and it will be Martin’s first as a manager.

Winning the playoffs would secure a third Premier League spell for Southampton. Their previous 13 and 11-season stays came either side of a seven-year drop into the Football League, which included two years in League One. 

One potentially positive omen for them is that the three sides who have previously beaten West Brom in the second-tier playoffs have all gone on to win promotion. Those were Bolton Wanderers in 2001, Aston Villa in 2019 and Derby in 2007. 

Ones to watch

Adam Armstrong, who has 23 league goals this season, netted twice in the 3-1 playoff semi-final win over West Bromwich Albion.

Armstrong's second goal v West Brom

Armstrong has already scored three goals against Leeds this campaign, netting in both matches as Saints did the double over the Whites during the regular season.

Meanwhile, Che Adams has scored 16 times in the Championship.

Midfielder Flynn Downes plus defenders Kyle Walker-Peters and Manchester City loanee Taylor Harwood-Bellis have also stood out this season.