How the Championship promotion race is expected to play out for Burnley, Sheffield United, Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Luton Town

The Championship leaders preserved their seven-point advantage over fellow promotion hopefuls Sheffield United by registering a record-equalling 10th league win in a row.

The Clarets crucified Lancashire rivals Preston North End at Turf Moor to match the double-figure milestone previously set by both Fulham and Aston Villa.

A 3-0 victory against the play-off chasing Lilywhites, courtesy of Nathan Tella's hat-trick, also means the table-toppers are now 17 points clear of third place Middlesbrough, with a game in hand over Michael Carrick's men.

Burnley, who won 10 consecutive league games for the first time since 1913, will become out-and-out record holders if they beat Watford, who are the only team to keep the clinical Clarets out in the 30 games they've played so far this season.

According to an updated predicted table from FiveThirtyEight, Burnley are expected to marginally stretch their lead over the Blades and return to the Premier League as champions.

However, the 'supercomputer' has Burnley finishing just shy of their 100-point target, which has only been achieved by five clubs in the history of the second tier.

It’s forecasted they'll end the campaign on 97 points, nine points ahead of Sheffield United, with a +44 goal difference.

According to statisticians and data experts, Burnley have now been handed a 99 per cent chance of promotion and an 80 per cent chance of keeping hold of top spot.

Middlesbrough, Millwall, Luton Town and West Bromwich Albion are expected to make up the top six in the division.

Following the completion of this weekend’s round of fixtures, data experts at FiveThirtyEight have crunched the numbers and predicted how the final Championship table will look…

FiveThirtyEight’s predicted Championship table

BURNLEY 97 (+44)

Sheffield United 88 (+35)

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Middlesbrough 76 (+20)

Millwall 73 (+13)

Luton Town 73 (+11)

West Brom 71 (+14)

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Norwich City 68 (+10)

Watford 68 (+5)

Sunderland 67 (+11)

Swansea 64 (+3)

Blackburn Rovers 63 (-9)

Coventry City 62 (+1)

Bristol City 60 (0)

Birmingham City 60 (-2)

Preston 60 (-12)

QPR 59 (-8)

Hull City 58 (-12)

Reading 58 (-15)

Stoke City 57 (-4)

Rotherham United 49 (-16)

Cardiff City 46 (-19)

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Wigan Athletic 46 (-28)

Blackpool 45 (-22)

Huddersfield Town 44 (-19)