Championship run-in: Where the top four stand in race for automatic promotion

Leicester took a giant step towards automatic promotion from the Sky Bet Championship on Tuesday night by thrashing Southampton.

The Foxes opened up a four-point gap at the top of the table and all but dashed the Saints’ own hopes of a top-two finish, leaving Leeds and Ipswich as their rivals in a three-horse sprint to the finish.

Here, the PA news agency looks at who needs what as the automatic promotion race looks set to go down to the wire.

Remaining games: Preston (a), Blackburn (h).

Leicester will seal a swift return to the top flight with victory in one of their last two matches, or if Leeds lose at QPR on Friday night, after recovering their composure in the nick of time.

Enzo Maresca’s Foxes looked certain to bounce straight back to the Premier League – they were 17 points clear of Leeds at the turn of the year – before an almighty wobble saw them lose six times in 10 matches through February to April.

But a 2-1 win over play-off hopefuls West Brom last Saturday took them back to the top of the table and Tuesday’s 5-0 triumph over Southampton suggests they will ultimately hold their nerve.

(2nd, played 44, 90 points, +43 goal difference)

Remaining games: QPR (a), Southampton (h).

As with Leicester, Leeds have suffered a wobble at the most inopportune moment.

A 2-1 defeat at Coventry on April 6 was their first in the league since the turn of the year and, having seen Sunderland leave Elland Road with a point three days later, Daniel Farke’s men lost on home soil for the first time this season on April 13 when Sammie Szmodics fired Blackburn to victory.

But they came out on the right end of a seven-goal thriller in Teesside on Monday, claiming a 4-3 win over Middlesbrough that Farke will hope can be a