Swansea City supporters will find new belief if they avoid recent Leeds United repeats | OneFootball

If Swansea can avoid defeat to Leeds United it shows that they could be in the mix for the play-offs

After a heartbreaking defeat to Burnley last time out, Swansea City welcome Leeds United to the Swansea.com Stadium on Sunday as they look to get back to winning ways.

A game against one of the Championship's best sides will not only excite supporters, but it gives Luke Williams' side the chance to make a statement and prove that they're a team capable of competing for the play-off places.

Swansea have enjoyed a relatively successful start to the season, and while they're the division's lowest scorers, their rock solid defence means that they sit in 11th place, six points off the play-offs, but they can feel unlucky that they're not higher up after dropping points in games they deserved to win.

However, a meeting with Leeds provides the perfect chance to make a statement, and while their record against the Whites has been poor in recent seasons, picking up any sort of point would represent excellent progress.

There's no doubting that Leeds are one of the best sides in the division, and after narrowly missing out on promotion last season, early evidence suggests that they'll be there or thereabouts again come May.

Swansea have lost their last two games against Leeds at the Swansea.com Stadium, both in very different circumstances, but it shows that any sort of result against Daniel Farke's side would represent genuine improvement and enhance their reputation as top six outsiders.

With Leeds competing for automatic promotion and Swansea challenging for a play-off spot in July 2020, a late Pablo Hernandez goal all but sealed a return to the Premier League for the Whites, coming away from south Wales with a 1-0 win, and they've enjoyed further success since.

In February, Farke's side romped to a comfortable 4-0 win in Swansea, early in Williams' reign as Swans boss, and it's perhaps not unfair to say that Leeds could have scored more than four, such was their levels of dominance.

The Swansea.com Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for Leeds in recent times, and Swansea haven't beaten them at home since February 2011, when a Scott Sinclair double and a goal from Luke Moore sealed a 3-0 win on their way to Premier League promotion.

Admittedly, Swansea and Leeds haven't faced each other too often in the years that have followed, as they've been in different leagues, but a point, or even three against the Whites on Sunday would represent real progress for the Swans and Williams following their 4-0 drubbing in February.

Given Swansea's defensive record this season, it would be a shock should Sunday's scoreline be anything like the one from February, and it will tell us a lot about how much the Swans have improved under Williams.

The first month or so after Williams took over in January saw some difficult results, and Swansea have made clear progress under his stewardship.

Swansea saw heavy defeats to Southampton and Leeds at home in the league, as well as a humbling 5-0 defeat to Bournemouth in the FA Cup where they were 5-0 down before half-time, but those days are behind them now.

Williams has turned Swansea into a really tough side to beat, and we're 17 games into the season across all competitions with his side yet to concede more than one goal in a game.

This means that the Swans are always in touching distance of getting a result, and teams know that they're in for a tough afternoon and will have to work hard to beat them.

The game against Leeds on Sunday feels like an important one, and it allows Swansea the chance to benchmark themselves against one of the division's powerhouses.

While a defeat against a quality side like Leeds wouldn't be the end of the world, a positive result for Williams' side would show that they're a serious side capable of taking scalps, and would enhance their reputation as top six outsiders.